THEWiffT 
THEWEST^ 

EMEliSON  HOUCH 


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UNIVERSITY  OF  N.C.  AT  CHAPEL  HILL 


00032195909 

This  book  must  not 
be  taken  from  the 
Library  building. 


Form  No.  471 


The  Way  to  the  West 


THE  WAY  TO  THE 
WEST 


AND  THE  LIVES 
OF  THREE  EARLY  AMERICANS 

BOONE— CROCKETT— CARSON 


BY 

EMERSON  HOUGH 

AUTHOR  OF 
THE  COVERED  WAGON.   Etc. 


ILLUSTRATED  BY 

FREDERIC  REMINGTON 


GROSSET    &    DUNLAP 

PUBLISHERS  NEW     YORK 

Made  in  the  United  States  of  Ameiica 


Copyright,  1903 
Thb  Bobbs-Merrill  Company 

October 


TO 

J.  B.  H, 


•-0 


Contents 


BOOK  I 

THE   WAY    ACROSS  THE   ALLEGHANIES 

CHAPTBE  PAGE 

I    THE  AMERICAN  AX  7 

II    THE  AMERICAN  RIFLE  11 

III    THE  AMERICAN  BOAT  19 

IV    THE  AMERICAN  HORSE  25 

V  THE  PATHWAY  OF  THE  WATERS  32 
VI    THE  MISSISSIPPI,  AND  INDEPENDENCE  58 

VII    ORIGIN  OF  THE  PIONEER  73 

7III    DANIEL  BOONE  87 

IX    A  FRONTIER  REPUBLIC  122 

BOOK  II 

THE   WAY  TO  THE   ROCKIES 

I    DAVY  CROCKETT  U3 

II    AGAINST  THE  WATERS  185 

BOOK  III 

THE   WAY  TO  THE   PACIFIC 

I    KIT  CARSON  223 

II    THE  SANTA  F:^  TRAIL  260 

III  THE  OREGON  TRAIL  287 

IV  EARLY  EXPLORERS  OF  THE  TRANS-MISSOURI  311 

V  ACROSS  THE  WATERS  343 

BOOK  IV 
THE  WAY  ACROSS  THE    PACIFIC 

I    THE  IRON  TRAILS  381 

II    THE  PATHWAYS  OF  THE  FUTURE  413 


1834 


IN  THE  YEAR  1834  IT  BECAME  NO  LONGER 
PROFITABLE  TO  TRAP  THE  BEAVER 


PREFACE 


The  customary  method  in  writing  history  is  to 
rely  on  chronological  sequence  as  the  only  con- 
necting thread  in  the  narrative.  For  this  reason 
many  books  of  history  are  but  little  more  than 
loosely  bound  masses  of  dates  and  events  that  bear 
no  philosophical  connection  with  one  another,  and 
therefore  are  not  easily  retained  in  the  grasp  of  the 
average  mind.  History,  to  be  of  service,  must  be 
remembered. 

A  merely  circumstantial  mind  may  grasp  and  re- 
tain for  a  time  a  series  of  disconnected  dates  and 
events,  but  such  facts  do  not  appeal  to  that  more 
common  yet  not  less  able  type  of  intellect  that  asks 
not  only  when,  but  why,  such  and  such  a  thing  hap- 
pened; that  instinctively  relates  a  given  event  to 
some  other  event,  and  thus  goes  on  to  a  certain 
solidity  and  permanency  in  conclusions.  Perhaps  to 
this  latter  type  of  mind  there  may  be  appeal  in  a 
series  of  loosely  connected  yet  really  interlocking 
monographs  upon   certain   phases   of  the   splendid 


2  PREFACE 

and  stirring  history  of  the  settlement  of  the  Ameri- 
can West. 

ITot  concerned  so  much  with  a  sequence  of  dates, 
or  with  a  story  of  martial  or  political  triumphs,  so 
called,  the  writer  has  sought  to  show  somewhat  of 
the  genesis  of  the  Western  man;  that  is  to  say,  the 
American  man;  for  the  history  of  America  is  but  a 
history  of  the  West. 

Whence  came  this  Western  man,  why  came  he, 
in  what  fashion,  under  what  limitations?  What 
are  the  reasons  for  the  American  or  Western  type? 
Is  that  type  permanent?  Have  we  actual  cause  for 
self-congratulation  at  the  present  stage  of  our  na- 
tional development  ?  These  are  some  of  the  questions 
that  present  themselves  in  this  series  of  studies  of 
the  manner  in  which  the  settlement  of  the  West  was 
brought  about. 

The  history  of  the  occupation  of  the  West  is  the 
story  of  a  great  pilgrimage.  It  is  the  record  of  a 
people  always  outstripping  its  leaders  in  wisdom,  in 
energy  and  in  foresight.  A  slave  of  politics,  the 
American  citizen  has  none  the  less  always  proved 
himself  greater  than  politics  or  politicians.  The 
American,  the  Westerner,  if  you  please,  has  been  a 
splendid  individual.  We  shall  have  no  hope  as  a 
nation  when  the  day  of  the  individual  shall  be  no 
more.     Then   ultimately   we    shall    demand    Magna 


PREFACE  3 

Cliarta  over  again;  shall  repeat  in  parallel  the  his- 
tory of  France  in  '93 ;  shall  perhaps  see  the  streets 
run  red  in  our  America.  There  are  those  who  be- 
lieve that  the  day  of  the  individual  in  America  is 
passing  all  too  swiftly,  that  we  are  making  history 
over-fast.  There  is  scant  space  for  speculation 
when  the  facts  come  crowding  down  so  rapidly  on 
us  as  is  the  case  to-day.  Yet  there  may  perhaps  be 
some  interest  attached  to  conclusions  herein,  which 
appear  logical  as  based  upon  a  study  of  the  manner 
in  which  the  American  country  was  settled. 

As  to  dates,  we  shall  need  but  few.  Indeed,  it 
will  suffice  if  the  reader  shall  remember  but  one  date 
out  of  all  given  in  this  book — that  when  it  became 
no  longer  profitable  to  trap  the  beaver  in  the  West. 
This  date,  remembered  and  understood  logically,  may 
jprove  of  considerable  service  in  the  study  of  the 
movements  of  the  American  people. 

As  to  the  apparently  disconnected  nature  of  the 
studies  here  presented,  it  is  matter,  as  one  may  again 
indicate,  not  of  accident.  On  the  contrary,  the 
arrangement  of  the  material  is  thought  to  consti- 
tute the  chief  claim  of  the  work  for  a  tolerant  con- 
sideration. 

I  shall  ask  my  reader  to  consider  the  movements 
of  the  American  population  as  grouped  under  four 
great  epochs.     There  was  a   time  when  the  west- 


4  PREFACE 

bound  men  were  crossing  the  Alleghanies ;  a  time 
when  they  crossed  the  Mississippi ;  a  time  when  they 
crossed  the  Eocky  Mountains.  Now  they  cross  the 
Pacific  Ocean.  Roughly  coincident  with  these  great 
epochs  we  may  consider,  first,  the  period  of  down- 
stream transportation;  second,  of  up-stream  trans- 
portation; and  lastly,  of  transportation  not  parallel 
to  the  great  watercourses,  hut  directly  across  them 
on  the  way  to  the  West.  These  latter  groupings  were 
employed  in  a  series  of  articles  printed  in  the  Cen- 
tury Magazine  in  the  year  1901-1902,  the  use  of  this 
material  herein  being  by  courtesy  of  the  Century 
Company. 

I  have  not  hesitated  to  employ  the  medium  of 
biography  where  that  seemed  the  best  vehicle  for  con- 
veying the  idea  of  a  great  and  daring  people  led  by 
a  few  great  and  daring  pilots,  prophets  of  adventur- 
ings:  hence  the  sketches  of  the  lives  of  the  great 
frontiersmen,  Boone,  Crockett,  and  Carson, — all 
great  and  significant  lives,  whose  story  is  useful  in 
illustrative  quality. 

I  am  indebted  for  many  facts  obtained  from  spe- 
cial study  by  Mr.  Horace  Kephart,  an  authority  on 
early  Western  history,  illustrating  thoroughly 
•the  jvart  that  the  state  of  Pennsylvania  played 
in  the  movement  of  the  early  west-bound  pop- 
ulation.     Mr.   Warren  S.   Ely,   a  resident  of  his- 


PREFACE  5 

toric  Bucks  County,  Pennsylvania,  supplements  Mr. 
Kephart's  material  with  results  of  local  investigations 
of  Ids  own.  Mr.  Alexander  Hynds  of  Tennessee  as- 
sists in  telling  the  story  of  that  Frontier  Eepublic 
whose  history  blends  itself  so  closely  with  Western 
affairs  of  a  hundred  years  ago.  I  have  quoted  freely 
from  Mr.  N.  P.  Langford,  a  man  of  the  early  trans- 
Missouri,  an  Argonaut  of  the  Eockies,  who  has  placed 
at  my  disposal  much  valuable  material.  Mr.  Hiram 
M.  Chittenden's  splendid  work  on  the  history  of  the 
American  fur  trade  has  proved  of  great  value. 

I  am  indebted  to  many  books  and  periodicals  for 
data  regarding  the  modem  American  industrial  de- 
velopment. I  am  indebted  also  to  many  early  authors 
who  wrote  of  the  old  West,  and  am  under  obliga- 
tions to  very  many  unknown  friends,  the  unnamed 
but  able  writers  of  the  daily  press. 

In  regard  to  the  classification  of  this  material, 
varied  and  apparently  heterogeneous,  yet  really  in- 
terdependent, under  the  four  epochs  or  volume-heads 
mentioned,  I  refer  to  the  table  given  on  another  page. 

As  justification  of  what  might  be  called  presump- 
tion on  the  part  of  the  writer  in  undertaking  a  work 
of  this  nature,  he  has  only  to  plead  a  sincere  interest 
in  the  West,  which  was  his  own  native  land;  a  love 
for  that  free  American  life  now  all  too  rapidly  fading 
away;  and  a  deep  admiration  for  the  accomplish- 


$  PREFACE 

merits  of  tliat  American  civilization  which  never  was 
and  never  will  be  any  better  than  the  man  that  made 
it.  It  has  not  been  the  intention  herein  to  write  a 
history  of  the  American  people,  but  a  history  of  the 
American  man. 

EMERSON  HOUGH. 
Chicago,  Illinois,  June,  1903. 


THE   WAT  TO   THE   WEST 


CHAPTER  I 

THE  AMEEICAN  AX 

I  ask  you  to  look  at  this  splendid  tool,  the  Ameri- 
can ax,  not  more  an  implement  of  labor  than  an 
instrument  of  civilization.  If  you  can  not  use  it, 
you  are  not  Americaji.  If  you  do  not  understand  it, 
you  can  not  understand  America. 

This  tool  is  so  simple  and  so  perfect  that  it  has 
scarcely  seen  change  in  the  course  of  a  hundred  years. 
It  lacks  decoration,  as  do  the  tools  and  the  weapons 
of  all  strong  peoples.  It  has  no  fantastic  lines,  no 
deviations  from  simplicity  of  outline,  no  ornamenta- 
tions, no  irregularities.  It  is  simple,  severe,  perfect. 
Its  beauty  is  the  beauty  of  utility. 

In  the  shaft  of  the  ax  there  is  a  curve.  This 
curve  is  there  for  a  reason,  a  reason  of  usefulness. 
The  simple  swelling  head  is  made  thus  not  for  mo- 
tives of  beauty,  but  for  the  purpose  of  effectiveness. 

The  shaft,  an  even  yard  in  length,  polished,  curved, 

7 


8  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

of  a  formation  that  shall  give  the  greatest  strength 
to  a  downright  blow  in  combination  with  the  greatest 
security  to  the  hand-grasp,  has  been  made  thus  for  a 
century  of  American  life.  This  shaft  is  made  of 
hickory,  the  sternest  of  American  woods,  the  one 
most  capable  of  withstanding  the  hardest  use.  It 
has  always  been  made  thus  and  of  this  material. 

The  metal  head  or  blade  of  the  American  ax  is 
to-day  as  it  has  always  been.  The  makers  of  axes 
will  tell  you  that  they  scarcely  know  of  any  other 
model.  The  face  of  the  blade  is  of  the  most  highly 
tempered  steel  for  a  tliird  or  half  of  its  extent. 
The  blade  or  bitt  is  about  eight  inches  in  length, 
the  cutting  edge  four  and  seven-eighths  to  five  inches 
in  width.  The  curve  of  this  edge  could  not,  by  the 
highest  science,  be  made  more  perfect  for  the  pur- 
pose of  biting  deepest  at  the  least  outlay  of  human 
strength.  The  poll  or  back  of  the  ax  is  about  four 
inches  in  width,  square  or  roughly  rounded  into 
such  form  that  it  is  capable  of  delivering  a  pound- 
ing, crushing  or  directing  blow.  The  weight  of  the 
ax-head  is  about  four  pounds,  that  is  to  say  from 
three  and  one-half  to  five  pounds. 

With  the  ax  one  can  do  many  things.  With  it 
the  early  American  blazed  his  way  through  the  track- 
less forests.  With  it  he  felled  the  wood  whereby 
was  fed  the  home  fire,  or  the  blaze  by  which  he  kept 


THE  AMERluAN  AX  9 

his  distant  and  solitary  bivouac.  With  it  he  built 
his  home,  framing  a  fortress  capable  of  withstand- 
ing all  the  weaponry  of  his  time.  With  it  he  not 
only  made  the  walls,  but  fabricated  the  floors  and 
roof  for  his  little  castle.  He  built  chairs,  tables, 
beds,  therewith.  By  its  means  he  hewed  out  his 
homestead  from  the  heart  of  the  primeval  forest, 
and  fenced  it  round  about.  Without  it  he  had  been 
lost. 

At  times  it  served  him  not  only  as  tool,  but  as 
weapon;  nor  did  more  terrible  weapon  ever  fit  the 
hand  of  man.  Against  its  downright  blow  wielded 
by  a  sinewy  arm  the  steel  casques  of  the  Crusaders 
had  proved  indeed  poor  fending.  Even  the  early 
womankind  of  America  had  acquaintance  with  this 
rtveapon.  There  is  record  of  a  woman  of  early  Ken- 
tucky who  with  an  ax  once  despatched  five  Indians, 
who  assailed  the  cabin  where  for  the  time  she  had 
been  left  alone. 

It  was  a  tremendous  thing,  this  ax  of  the  early 
American.  It  cleared  away  paths  over  hundreds  of 
miles,  or  marked  the  portages  between  the  heads  of 
the  Western  waterways,  which  the  early  government 
declared  should  be  held  as  public  pathways  forever. 
In  time  it  became  an  agent  of  desolation  and  destruc- 
tion, as  well  as  an  agent  of  upbuilding  and  construc- 
tion.    Misguided,  it  leveled  all  too  soon  and  waste- 


10  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

fully  ihe  magnificent  forests  of  this  country,  whose 
superior  was  never  seen  on  any  portion  of  the 
earth.  Stem,  simple,  severe,  tremendous,  wasteful 
— ^truly  this  was  the  typical  American  implement. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE   AMERICAN   EIFLE 

Witness  this  sweet  ancient  weapon  of  our  fathers, 
the  American  rifle,  maker  of  states,  empire  builder. 
Useful  as  its  cousin,  the  ax,  it  is  in  design  simple  as 
the  ax;  in  outline  severe,  practicable,  purposeful  in 
every  regard.  It  is  devoid  of  ornamentation.  The 
brass  that  binds  the  foot  of  the  stock  is  there  to 
protect  the  wood.  The  metal  guard  below  the  lock 
is  to  preserve  from  injury  the  light  set-triggers. 
The  serrated  edges  of  the  lock  plate  may  show  rude 
file  marks  of  a  certain  pattern,  but  they  are  done 
more  in  careless  strength  than  in  cunning  or  in  deli- 
cacy. This  is  no  belonging  of  a  weak  or  savage  man. 
It  is  the  weapon  of  the  Anglo-Saxon;  that  is  to  sa}^, 
the  Anglo-Saxon  in  America,  who  invented  it  be- 
cause he  had  need  for  it. 

This  arm  was  bom  of  the  conditions  that  surroimd- 

ed  our  forefathers  in  the  densely  covered  slopes  of 

the   Appalachian   Divide,   in   whose   virgin   forests 

there  was  for  the  most  part  small  opportunity  for 

extended  vision,  hence  little  necessity  for  a  weapon 

of  long  range.    The  game  or  the  enemy  with  which 

11 


12  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

the  early  frontiersman  was  concerned  was  apt  to  be 
met  at  distances  of  not  more  tlian  a  hundred  or  two 
hundred  yards,  and  the  early  rifle  was  perfect  for 
such  ranges. 

Moreover,  it  was  only  with  great  difficulty  that  the 
frontiersman  transported  any  weighty  articles  on 
his  Western  pilgrimage.  Lead  was  heavy,  powder 
was  precious,  the  paths  back  to  the  land  of  such 
commodities  long  and  arduous.  A  marvel  of  adapta- 
tion, the  American  rifle  swiftly  grew  to  a  practical 
perfection.  Never  in  the  history  of  the  arms  of  na- 
tions has  there  been  produced  a  weapon  whose  results 
have  been  more  tremendous  in  comparison  to  the 
visible  expenditure  of  energ}^;  never  has  there  been 
a  more  economical  engine,  or  an  environment  where 
economy  was  more  imperative. 

The  ball  of  the  American  rifle  was  small,  forty, 
sixty  or  perhaps  one  hundred  of  them  weighing 
scarcely  more  than  a  pound.  The  little,  curving  horn, 
filled  with  the  precious  powder  grains,  carried  enough 
to  furnish  many  shots.  The  stock  of  the  rifle  itself 
gave  housing  to  the  little  squares  of  linen  or  fine 
leather  with  which  the  bullet  was  patched  in  load- 
ing. With  this  tiny  store  of  powder  and  lead,  easily 
portable  food  for  this  providentially  contrived 
weapon,  the  American  frontiersman  passed  on  si- 
lently through  the  forest,  a  master,  an  arbiter,  ruler 


THE  AMERICAN"  EIFLE  13 

of  savage  beast  or  savage  foeman,  and  in  time  master 
of  the  civilized  antagonist  that  said  him  nay. 

We  shall  observe  that  the  state  of  Pennsylvania 
was  the  starting  point  of  the  westward  movement 
of  our  frontiersmen.  We  shall  find  also  that  the  first 
American  small-bore,  muzzle-loading  rifles  were 
made  in  Pennsylvania.  The  principle  of  the  riflei, 
the  twist  in  the  bore,  is  thought  to  have  originated 
in  the  German  states  of  the  Palatinate,  but  it  was 
left  for  America  to  improve  it  and  to  perfect  its  use. 

At  Lancaster,  Pennsylvania,  there  was  a  riflemaker, 
probably  a  German  by  birth,  by  name  Decherd  or 
Dechert,  who  began  to  outline  the  type  of  the  Ameri- 
can squirrel-rifle  or  hunting-arm.  This  man  had 
an  apprentice,  one  Mills,  with  ideas  of  his  own. 
We  see  this  apprentice  and  his  improved  rifle 
presently  in  Xorth  Carolina;  and  soon  thereafter 
riflemakers  spring  up  all  over  the  east  slope  of  the 
Alleghanies,  so  that  as  though  by  magic  all  our 
hunters  and  frontiersmen  are  equipped  with  this 
long  rifle,  shooting  the  tiny  ball,  and  shooting  it 
with  an  accuracy  hitherto  deemed  impossible  in  the 
achievements  of  firearms. 

Withal  we  may  call  this  a  Southern  arm,  since  New 
England  was  later  in  taking  up  its  use,  clinging  to 
the  Queen  Anne  musket  when  the  men  of  North  Car- 
olina and  Virginia  scorned  to  shoot  a  squirrel  any- 


14  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

where  except  in  the  head.  The  first  riflemen  of  the 
Eevolutionary  War  were  Pennsylvanians,  Virginians 
and  Marylanders,  all  Southerners;  and  deadly 
enough  was?  their  skill  with  what  the  English  ofiBcers 
called  their  "cursed  widow  and  orphan  makers." 

The  harrel  of  the  typical  rifle  of  those  days  was 
about  four  feet  in  length,  the  stock  slender,  short 
and  strongly  curved,  so  that  the  sights  came  easily 
and  directly  up  to  the  level  of  the  eye  in  aiming. 
The  sights  were  low  and  close  to  the  barrel,  some 
pieces  being  provided  with  two  hind  sights,  a  foot 
or  so  apart,  so  that  the  marksman  might  not  draw 
either  too  fine  or  too  coarse  a  bead  with  the  low 
silver  or  bone  crescent  of  the  fore  sight.  Usually 
the  rear  sight  was  a  simple,  flat  bar,  finely  notched, 
and  placed  a  foot  or  fifteen  inches  in  front  of  the 
breech  of  the  barrel,  so  that  the  eye  should  focus 
easily  and  sharply  at  the  notch  of  the  rear  sight. 
Such  was  the  care  with  which  the  sights  were  ad- 
justed that  the  rifleman  sometimes  put  the  finishing 
touches  on  the  notch  with  so  soft  a  cutting  tool 
as  a  common  pin,  working  away  patiently,  a  little  at 
a  time,  lest  he  should  by  too  great  haste  go  too  deep 
into  the  rear  sight,  and  so  cause  the  piece  to  shoot 
otherwise  than  "true." 

The  delicately  arranged  set-triggers  made  pos- 
sible an  instantaneous  discharge  without  any  ap- 


THE  AMERICAN  EIFLE  15 

jpreciable  disturbance  of  the  aim  wheii  once  obtained ; 
and  the  long  distance  between  the  hind  sight  and 
fore  sight,  the  steadiness  of  the  piece,  owing  to  its 
length  and  weiglit,  the  closeness  of  the  line  of  sight 
to  ihe  line  of  the  trajectory  of  a  ball  driven  with 
a  relatively  heavy  powder  charge,  all  conspired  to 
render  extreme  accuracy  possible  with  this  arm, 
and  this  aiccuracy  became  so  general  throughout  the 
American  frontier  that  to  be  a  poor  rifle  shot  was 
to  be  an  object  of  contempt. 

Each  rifle  was  provided  with  its  own  bullet  mold, 
which  cast  a  round  ball  of  such  size  that  when  prop- 
erly ^^patched"  it  fitted  the  bore  of  the  piece  tightly, 
so  tightly  that  in  some  cases  a  "starter'^  or  section 
of  false  barrel  was  used,  into  which  the  ball  was 
forced,  sometimes  being  swaged  in  with  a  mallet 
and  a  short  starting  rod.  The  ramrod  proper  was 
carried  in  pipes  attached  to  the  long  wooden  stock, 
which  extended  to  the  muzzle  of  the  barrel  under- 
neath the  piece.  One  end  of  this  rod  was  protected 
with  a  brass  ferrule,  and  the  other  was  provided 
with  a  screw,  into  which  was  twisted  the  ^*^womr' 
used  in  cleaning  the  arm. 

The  pouch  of  the  hunter  always  carried  some  flax 
or  tow  for  use  in  cleaning  the  piece.  The  rifleman 
would  wind  a  wisp  of  this  tow  about  the  end  of  the 
'Vorm,^'  moisten  it  by  passing  it  between  his  lips, 


16  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

and  then  pa^  the  tightty  fitting  wad  of  tow  up  and 
down  the  barrel  until  the  latter  was  perfectly  free 
from  powder  residue.  Then  the  little  ball,  nicely 
patched,  was  forced  down  on  the  powder  diarge  by 
the  slender  ramrod,  made  with  great  care  from  the 
toughest  straight-grained  hickory  wood. 

Powder  and  ball  were  precious  in  those  early  days, 
and  though  strong  men  ever  love  the  sports  of 
weapons,  waste  could  not  be  tolerated  even  in  sport. 
Sometimes  at  night  the  frontiersmen  would  gather 
for  the  pastime  of  ''snuffing  the  candle,"  and  he 
was  considered  a  clumsy  rifleman  who  but  fanned 
the  flame  with  his  bullet,  or  cut  too  deeply  into  the 
base  of  the  candle-wick,  and  so  extinguished  the 
light.  Again  the  riflemen  would  engage  in  "driv- 
ing the  nail''  with  the  rifle  ball,  or  would  shoot  at  a 
tiny  spot  of  black  on  a  board  or  a  blazed  tree- 
trunk,  firing  a  number  of  balls  into  the  same  mark. 
In  nearly  all  such  cases  the  balls  were  dug  out  of 
the  tree  or  plank  into  which  they  had  been  fired,  and 
were  run  over  again  into  fresh  bullets  for  use  at 
another  time.  Thus  grew  the  skill  of  the  American 
rifleman,  with  whose  weapon  most  of  the  feats  of 
latter  day  short-range  marksmanship  could  be  dupli- 
cated.* 

♦In  a  careful  test  an  old  squirrel-rifle,  for  three  generations 
in  the  author's  family,  ajid  now  nearly  one  hundred  years  old, 
was  fired  five  times,  at  a  distance  of  60  yards,  and  the  point  of 
the  finger  would  cover  all  five  of  the  balls,  which  made  practically 


THE  AMERICAN  EIFLE.  17! 

The  early  American  depended  upon  his  rifle  in 
supporting  and  defending  his  family.  Without  it  he 
had  not  dared  to  move  across  the  Alleghanies.  With 
it  he  dared  to  go  anywhere,  knowing  that  it  would 
furnish  him  food  and  fending.  When  the  deer  and 
turkey  became  less  numerous  near  him,  he  moved 
his  home  farther  westward,  where  game  was  more 
abundant. 

His  progress  was  bitterly  contested  by  the  Indian 
savages  all  the  way  cross  the  American  continent, 
but  they  perished  before  this  engine  of  civilization, 
which  served  its  purpose  across  the  timbered  Ap- 
palachians, down  the  watershed  to  the  Mississippi, 
up  the  long  and  winding  streams  of  the  western 
lands,  over  the  Eockies,  and  down  the  slopes  of 
the  Sierras  to  the  farther  sea.  Had  it  never 
known  change  it  had  not  been  American.  An  ax  is  an 
ax,  because  a  tree  is  a  tree,  whether  in  the  Alle- 
ghanies  or  the  Rockies;  but  the  rifle  met  in  time 
different  conditions.  The  great  plains  furnished 
larger  game  animals,  and  demanded  longer  range 
in  arms,  so  that  in  time  the  rifle  shot  a  heavier  ball. 

When  the  feverish  intensity  of  American  life  had 

but  one  ragged  hole.  The  author's  father  handled  the  old  weapon 
on  this  occasion.  Again,  In  the  author's  hands,  it  shot  out  in 
succession  the  spots  or  pips  of  a  playing  card,  the  ten  of  clubs, 
at  such  distance  as  left  the  spots  only  clearly  distinguishable. 
This  piece  was  altered  from  flint  lock  to  pill-percussion  lock,  and 
later  to  the  percussion  cap  lock. 


18  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

asked  yet  more  haste,  there  came  the  repeating  rifle, 
firing  rapidly  a  number  of  shots,  an  invention  now 
used  all  over  the  earth.  In  time  there  came  also 
the  revolving  pistol,  rapid,  destructive,  American. 
These  things  had  not  to  do  with  the  early  west- 
bound man,  this  wilderness  traveler,  himself  per- 
force almo&t  savage,  shod  with  moccasins,  wear- 
ing the  fringed  hide  tunic  that  was  never  in  the 
designs  of  Providence  intended  for  any  unmanly 
man,  and  that  fits  ill  to-day  the  figure  of  any  round- 
paunched  city  dweller.  Feather  or  plume  he  did  not 
wear  in  his  hat,  for  such  things  pertained  rather 
to  the  hired  voyager  than  to  the  independent  home 
builder.  Ornamentation  was  foreign  to  his  garb 
and  to  his  weaponry.  He  had  much  to  do.  The 
way  was  hard.  N'o  matter  how  he  must  travel,  this 
long  rifle  was  with  him.  At  his  belt,  in  the  little 
hag  of  buckskin,  were  the  bullets  in  their  stoppered 
pouch,  the  cleaning  worm,  the  extra  flint  or  two,  the 
awl  for  mending  shoon  or  clothing. 

So  were  equipped  the  early  Americans,  gaunt, 
keen,  tireless,  that  marched  to  meet  the  invading 
forces  at  the  battle  of  New  Orleans;  and  when  the 
officers  of  the  British  army,  on  the  day  after  that 
stricken  field,  found  half  their  dead  shot  between  the 
eyes,  they  knew  they  could  lead  their  troops  no  more 
against  such  weaponry  and  such  weapon  bearers. 
The  rifle  had  won  the  West,  and  it  would  hold  it  fast. 


CHAPTER  in 

THE  AMERICAN  BOAT 

Here  is  that  fairy  ship  of  the  wilderness,  the  birch- 
hark  canoe,  the  first  craft  of  America,  antedating 
even  the  arrival  of  the  white  man.  It  is  the  ship  of 
risk  and  of  adventure,  belonging  by  right  to  him  who 
goes  far  and  travels  light,  who  is  careless  of  his  home 
coming.  It  is  a  boat  that  now  carries  the  voyager, 
and  now  is  carried  by  him.  It  is  a  great-hearted 
craft.  You  shall  take  it  upon  your  shoulders,  and 
carry  it  a  mile  across  the  land  trail,  without  need- 
ing to  set  it  down;  but  when  you  place  it  on  the 
water  it  in  turn  will  carry  you  and  your  fellow,  and 
yet  another,  and  your  household  goods  of  the  wilder- 
ness up  to  five  times  your  weight. 

Freakish  as  a  woman,  as  easily  unsettled,  yet  if 
you  be  master  it  shall  take  you  over  combing  waves, 
and  down  yeasty  rapids  and  against  steady  curreot, 
until  finally  you  shall  find  yourself  utterly  apart  from 
the  familiar  haunts  of  man,  about  you  only  the  wil- 
derness, the  unadventured.  This  is  the  ship  of  the 
wilderness,  the  fairy  ship,  the  ship  of  heroes.  To- 
day it  is  passing  away.    With  it  goes  great  store  of 

romance  and  adventure. 

19 


20  THE  WAY  TO  THE  Wi^ST 

The  red  man  tauglit  tlie  white  man  how  to  build 
and  how  to  use  this  boat.  He  taught  how  to  cut  the 
long  strips  of  toughest  bark  from  the  birch-tree, 
prying  it  off  with  sharpened  pole  or  driven  wooden 
wedge.  He  showed  how  to  build  the  frame  of  the 
boat  on  the  ground,  or  in  a  long  hole  dug  in  the 
ground,  where  stakes  hold  fast  the  curves  of  the 
gunwales,  between  which  are  later  forced  the  steamed 
splints  that  serve  as  ribs  and  as  protection  for  the 
fragile  skin,  soaked  soft  and  pliable,  which  is  pres- 
ently laid  on  the  frame  of  gunwale  and  rib  and 
bottom  splint.  This  covering  of  bark  is  sewn  to- 
gether with  the  thread  of  the  forest,  fiber  of  swamp 
conifers — ^Vautp,"  the  Indians  of  the  North  call 
this  thread. 

Then  over  the  seams  is  run  the  melted  pitch  and 
resin  taken  from  the  woods.  The  edges  of  the  bark 
skin  are  made  fast  at  the  gunwales,  the  sharply  bent 
bows  axe  guarded  carefully  from  cracks  where  the 
straining  comes,  and  the  narrow  thwarts,  wide  as  your 
three  fingers,  are  lashed  in,  serving  as  brace  and  as 
all  the  seat  you  shall  find  when  weary  from  kneeling. 
The  fresh  bark  is  clean  and  sweet  upon  the  new-made 
ship,  the  smell  of  the  resin  is  clean.  Each  line  of  the 
boat  is  full  of  spirit  and  grace  and  beauty. 

The  builder  turns  it  over,  and  where  he  finds  a  bub- 
ble in  the  pitching  of  a  seam  he  bends  down  and  puts 


THE  AMERICAN  BOAT  21 

his  lips  to  it,  sucking  in  his  hreath,  to  find  if  air  comes 
through.  So  he  tests  it,  well  and  thoroughly,  mend- 
ing and  patching  slowly  and  carefully,  until  at  last 
it  pleases  him  throughout.  And  then  he  places  his 
new-made  ship  on  the  water,  where  it  sits  high  and 
light,  spinning  and  turning  at  its  tether,  never  still 
for  an  instant,  but  shifting  like  a  wild  duck  under 
the  willows,  responsive  to  the  least  breath  of  the 
passing  airs.  It  is  eager  to  go  on.  It  will  go  far, 
in  its  life  of  a  year  or  two.  If  it  gets  a  wound  from 
the  rocks,  or  from  the  clumsiness  of  the  tyro  that 
drives  it  upon  the  beach  instead  of  anchoring  it 
free,  then  it  is  easily  mended  by  a  strip  of  bark  and 
some  forest  pitch.  When  at  last  it  loses  its  youth,  and 
cracks  or  soaks  in  water  so  freely  that  it  takes  too 
long  to  dry  it  at  the  noonday  pipe-smoking,  then  it 
is  not  so  difficult  to  build  another  in  the  forest. 

The  canoe  is  as  the  ax  and  the  rifle,  an  agent 
economical,  capable  of  great  results  in  return  for 
small  expenditure  of  energy.  It  is  American.  There 
was  much  to  do,  far  to  go.  It  was  thus  because 
America  existed  as  it  did. 

No  craft  has  been  found  easier  of  propulsion  to 
one  knowing  the  art  of  the  paddle.  The  voyager 
makes  his  paddle  about  as  long  as  his  rifle,  up  to  his 
chin  in  length.  He  paddles  with  the  blade  always 
on  one  side  of  the  canoe.     As  the  blade  is  with- 


22  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

drawn  from  the  backward  stroke,  it  is  turned  slightly 
in  the  water,  so  that  the  course  of  the  bow  is  still 
held  straight.  If  he  would  approach  a  landing  side- 
wise  with  his  boat,  he  makes  his  paddle  describe  short 
half  curves,  back  and  forth,  and  the  little  boat  fol- 
lows the  paddle  obediently.  The  advance  of  the 
canoe  is  light,  silent,  spirit-like.  It  is  full  of  mys- 
tery, this  boat.  Yet  it  is  kind  to  those  who  know 
it,  as  is  the  wildernesB  and  as  are  all  its  creatures. 

This  is  the  boat  of  the  northern  traveler,  the  voy- 
ager of  the  upper  ways.  In  the  South,  where  the 
birch  does  not  grow  in  proper  dimensions,  the  bark 
of  the  elm  has  on  occasion  served  to  make  a  small 
craft.  In  different  parts  of  the  North,  too,  the 
birch  canoe  takes  different  shapes.  In  the  northeast 
the  Abenakis  made  it  long  and  with  little  rake,  with 
low  bow  and  stern  and  with  bottom  swelling  outward 
safely  under  the  tumble-home, — this  stable  model 
serving  for  the  strong  streams  of  the  forested  regions 
of  the  North.  Far  to  the  west,  where  roll  the 
great  inland  lakes,  the  Ojibways  made  their  boats 
higher  at  bow  and  stern,  wider  of  beam,  shorter^ 
rounder  of  bottom,  all  the  better  fitted  for  short 
and  choppy  waves. 

Then,  under  the  white  fur  traders'  tutelage,  there 
were  made  great  ships  of  birch-bark,  the  canot  du 
Nord  of  the  Hudfion  Bay  trade,  such  as  came  down 


THE  AMERICAN  BOAT  23 

with  rich  bnrdens  of  furs  when  the  brigades  started 
down-stream  to  the  markets;  or  yet  the  greater  canot 
du  maitre  once  used  on  the  Great  Lakes,  a  craft  that 
needed  a  dozen  to  a  dozen  and  a  half  paddles  for  its 
propulsion.  Again,  at  the  heads  of  the  far  off  North- 
western streams  there  were  canoes  so  small  as  to  carry 
but  a  single  person,  propelled  by  a  pair  of  sticks,  one 
in  each  hand  of  the  occupant,  the  points  of  these 
hand-sticks  pushing  against  the  bottom  of  the  stream. 
But  ever  this  ship  of  the  wilderness  was  so  ox>ntrived 
that  its  crew  could  drive  it  by  water  or  carry  it  by 
land. 

Thus  were  the  portages  mastered,  thus  did  the  man 
with  small  gear  to  hinder  him  get  out  from  home, 
westward  into  the  wilderness.  Down  stream  or  up 
stream,  this  boat  went  far.  Paddle  or  sail  or  shod- 
den  pole  served  for  the  wanderer  before  the  trails 
were  made,  and  before  the  boats  of  the  white  settlers 
followed  where  the  savage  red  men  and  scarcely  less 
savage  white  adventurers  had  found  the  way. 

There  were  other  boats  for  the  early  traveler,  and 
these  were  employed  by  those  that  had  crossed  the 
Alleghanies  on  foot  and  would  fare  farther  west- 
ward. The  dugout,  made  of  the  sycamore  or  sassa- 
fras log,  ten  to  twenty  feet  in  length,  narrow,  un- 
stable, thick-skinned  and  a  bit  clumsy,  was  good 
enough  for  one  pushing  on  down-stream,  or  prowl- 


24  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

ing  about  in  sluggish,  silent  bayous.  This  was 
the  boat  of  the  South  in  the  early  days.  Soon  the 
great  flat-boat  succeeded  it  for  those  that  traveled 
with  family  goods  or  in  large  parties.  The  wooden 
boats  came  later,  the  flat-boat  after  the  dugout,  the 
keol-boat  but  following  the  far  trail  of  the  birch-bark 
to  the  upper  ways,  or  perchance  passing,  slipping 
down-stream,  the  frail  hide  coracle  of  the  hunter 
that  had  ventured  unaccompanied  far  into  unknown 
lands. 

Above  all  things  in  these  early  days  must  com- 
pactaess  and  lightness  be  studied.  This  Ameri- 
can traveler  was  poor  in  the  goods  of  this  world ;  his 
possessions  made  small  bulk.  This  as.  made  him 
bivouac  or  castle,  or  helped  him  make  raft  or  canoe. 
This  rifle  gave  him  food  and  clothing.  He  walked 
westward  to  the  westward  flowing  streams,  and  there 
this  light  craft,  dancing,  beckoning,  alluring,  in- 
vited him  yet  on  and  on,  proffering  him  carriage  for 
his  scanty  store,  offering  obedience  to  him  who  was 
the  master  of  the  wilderness,  of  its  alluring  secrets 
and  its  immeasurable  resources. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE  AMEKICAN  HOBSE 

Observe  here  a  creature,  a  dumb  brute,  that  has 
saved  some  centuries  of  time.  Indeed,  without  this 
Amexican  horse,  the  American  civilization  perhaps 
could  never  have  been.  Without  the  ax,  the  rifle, 
the  boat  and  the  horse  there  could  have  beeii  no 
West. 

Tb-day  we  would  in  some  measure  dispense  with 
the  horse,  but  in  the  early  times  no  part  of  man's 
possessions  was  more  indispensable.  This  animal 
was  not  then  quite  as  we  find  him  to-day  in  the  older 
settled  portions  of  the  country.  In  some  of  our 
wilder  regions  we  can  still  see  him  somewhat  as  he 
once  was,  rough,  wiry,  hardy,  capable  of  great  en- 
deavor, easily  supported  upon  the  country  over 
which  he  passed. 

Naturally  the  early  west-bound  traveler  could  not 
take  with  him  food  for  his  horse,  and  the  latter 
must  be  quite  independent  of  grain.  Com,  ex- 
ceedingly difficult    to    raise,    was    for    the    master 

alone.       The  horse  must  live  on  grass  food,  and 

25 


26  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

find  it  where  lie  stopped  at  niglii  Ihiring  the 
day  he  must  carry  the  trareler  and  his  weapons, 
another  horse  perhaps  serving  as  transportation  for 
food  or  household  goods;  or,  if  there  was  a  family 
with  the  traveler,  perhaps  one  horse  sufficed  for  the 
mother  and  a  child  or  two.  The  weak  might  ride, 
the  strong  could  trudge  alongside.  Many  women 
have  so  traveled  out  into  the  West — women  as  sweet 
as  any  of  to-day. 

We  have  here,  then,  one  more  simple,  economical 
and  effective  factor  in  the  resources  of  the  early 
American.  Beauty,  finish,  elegance,  were  not  im- 
perative. Strength,  stamina,  hardihood,  these  things 
must  be  possessed.  The  horse  must  be  durable;  and 
so  he  was.  The  early  settlers  on  the  Atlantic 
coast  brought  from  over  the  seas  horses  of  good 
blood.  Virginia  was  noted  as  a  breeding  ground 
before  the  yet  more  famous  Blue  Grass  Region  of 
Kentucky  began  to  produce  horses  of  great  quality. 
The  ufie  of  the  horse  in  the  New  World  went  on  as  it 
did  in  the  Old.  The  French  in  the  North,  the  Eng- 
lish at  the  mid-continent,  the  Spanish  in  the  South, 
all  brought  over  horses ;  and  even  to-day  the  types  of 
the  three  sections  are  distinct 

The  horse  with  which  we  are  concerned  was  the 
hardy  animal,  able  to  find  food  in  the  forest  glades  or 
laurel  thickets  of  the  Appalachians;  that  served  as 


THE  AMERICAN  HORSE  27 

pack-horse  in  the  hunt  near  home,  as  baggage  horse  in 
the  journey  away  from  home.  In  those  days  the  horse 
was  rather  a  luxury  than  a  necessity.  All  earlier  or 
Eastern  America  was  at  short  range.  The  rifle  was 
short  in  range;  the  man  himself  was  a  footman,  and 
did  not  travel  very  far  in  actual  leagues. 

For  a  generation  he  could  walk,  or  at  least  travel 
by  boat.  But  when  he  came  to  the  edge  of  the  open 
country  of  the  plains,  when  he  saw  above  him  the  vast 
bow  of  the  great  River  of  the  West,  across  whose  arc 
he  needed  to  travel  direct,  then  there  stood  waiting 
for  him,  as  though  by  providential  appointment,  this 
bumble  creature,  this  coward,  this  hero  of  an  animal, 
now  afraid  of  its  own  shadow,  now  willing  to  face 
steel  and  powder-smoke,  patient,  dauntless,  capable  of 
great  exertion  and  great  accomplishment.  So  in  the 
land  of  great  distances  the  traveler  became  a 
mounted  man;  the  horse  became  part  of  him,  no 
longer  a  luxury,  but  a  necessity. 

The  Spanish  contributed  most  largely  to  the  Ameri- 
can holding  of  that  vast  indefinite  West  of  ours  that 
they  once  claimed,  when  they  allowed  to  straggle  north- 
ward acrocB  the  plains,  into  the  hand  of  Indian  or 
white  man,  this  same  lean  and  wiry  horse,  carrying  to 
the  deserts  of  America  the  courage  of  his  far-off 
Moorish  blood,  his  African  adaptability  to  long  jour- 


28  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

neys  on  short  fare.*  The  man  that  followed  the 
Ohio  and  Missouri  to  the  edge  of  the  plains,  the 
trapper,  the  hunter,  the  adventurer  of  the  fur  trade, 
had  been  wholly  helpless  without  the  horse.  For  a 
time  the  trading  posts  might  cling  to  the  streams, 
hut  there  was  a  call  to  a  vast  empire  between  the 
streams,  where  one  could  not  walk,  where  no  boat 
could  go,  nor  any  wheeled  vehicle  whatever.  Here, 
then,  came  the  horse,  the  thing  needed. 

The  white  adventurer  may  have  brought  his  horse 
with  him  by  certain  slow  generations  of  advance,  or 
he  may  have  met  him  as  he  moved  West;  at  times 
he  captured  and  tamed  him  for  himself,  again  he 
bought  him  of  the  Indian,  or  took  him  without  pur- 
chase. Certainly  in  the  great  open  reaches  of  the 
farther  West  the  horse  became  man's  most  valuable 
propert}^  the  unit  of  all  recognized  current  values. 
The  most  serious,  the  most  unforgivable  crime  was 
that  of  horse  stealing.  To  kill  a  man  in  war,  man 
to  man,  was  a  matter  of  man  and  man,  and  to  be  re- 


♦"Wherever  pictographs  of  the  horse  appear  the  representations 
must  have  been  done  subsequent  to  the  advent  of  Coronado,  or 
the  conquistadors  of  Florida.  There  are  no  horse  portraits  iu 
Arizona  and  vicinity,  nor  up  the  Pacific  coast,  but  they  are  fre- 
quent in  Texas  and  in  the  trans-Mississippi  region.  The  domestic 
iorse  (not  Eohippus,  the  diminutive  quaternary  animal  which 
"was  indigenous)  was  introduced  into  Florida  from  Santo  Do- 
mingo by  the  Spaniards  early  in  the  15th  century,  as  well  as  into 
South  America,  where  it  spread  in  fifteen  years  as  far  south  as 
Patagonia."— Chas.  Hallock,  the  "American  Antiquarian,"  Janu- 
ary, 1902. 


THE  AMERICAN  HORSE  29 

garded  at  times  with  philosopliy ;  but  to  take  away 
without  quarrel  and  by  stealth  what  was  most  essen- 
tial to  man's  life  or  welfare  was  held  equivalent 
to  murder  unprovoked  and  of  a  despicable  nature.  To 
be  "set  afoot"  was  one  of  the  horrors  long  preserved 
In  memory  by  the  idiom  of  Western  speech. 

The  food  of  this  horse,  then,  was  generally  what 
he  might  gain  by  forage.  In  furnishings,  his  bridle 
was  sometimes  a  hide  lariat,  his  saddle  the  buckskin 
pad  of  the  Indians.  Stirrups  the  half- wild  white  man 
sometimes  discarded,  after  the  fashion  of  the  Indian, 
who  rode  by  the  clinging  of  his  legs  turned  back,  or  by 
purchase  of  his  toes  thrust  in  between  the  foreleg  and 
the  body  of  his  mount.  A  fleet  horse,  one  much  val- 
ued in  the  chase  or  in  war,  might  be  his  master's 
pet,  tied  close  to  his  house  of  skin  at  night,  or  pick- 
eted near-by  at  the  lonesome  bivouac.  He  might 
have  braided  in  his  forelock  the  eagle  feather  that 
his  white  master  himself  would  have  disdained  to 
wear  as  ornament.  Of  grooming  the  horse  knew 
nothing,  neither  did  he  ever  know  a  day  of  shelter. 

His  stable  was  the  heart  of  a  willow  thicket  if  the 
storm  blew  fierce.  In  winter-time  his  hay  was  the  bark 
of  the  Cottonwood,  under  whose  gnarled  arms  the 
hunter  had  pitched  his  winter  tepee  or  built  his 
rough  war-house  of  crooked  logs.  When  aU  the  wide 
plain  was  a  sheet  of  white,  covered  again  by  the 


30  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

driven  blinding  snows  of  the  prairie  storm,  then  this 
hardy  animal  must  paw  down  through  the  snow  and 
find  his  own  food,  the  dried  grass  curled  close  to  the 
ground.  Where  the  ox  would  perish  the  horse  could 
survive.  He  was  simple,  practicable,  durable,  even 
under  the  hardest  conditions.  The  horse  of  the  Ameri- 
can West  ought  to  have  place  on  the  American  coat 
of  arms. 

The  horse  might  be  a  riding  animal,  or  at  times  a 
beast  of  burden.  In  the  earliest  days  he  was  packed 
eimply,  sometimes  with  hide  pockets  or  panniers 
after  the  Indian  fashion,  with  a  lash  rope  perhaps 
holding  the  load  together  roughly.  Later  on  in  the 
story  of  the  West  there  came  a  day  when  it  was  nec- 
essary to  utilize  all  energies  more  exactly,  and  then 
the  loading  of  the  horse  became  an  interesting  and 
intricate  science.  The  carry-all  or  pannier  was  no 
longer  essential,  and  the  packs  were  made  up  of  all 
manner  of  things  transported.  The  pack  saddle,  a 
pair  of  X's  connected  with  side  bars,  the  ""^saw  buck" 
pack-saddle  of  the  West,  which  was  an  idea  perhaps 
taken  from  the  Indians,  was  the  immediate  aid  of 
the  packer.  The  horse  and  the  lash  rope  in  combi- 
nation were  born  of  neceesity,  the  necessity  of  long 
trails  across  the  mountains  and  the  plains. 

Thus  the  horse  trebled  the  independence  of  the 
Western  man,  made  it  possible  for  him  to  travel  as 


THE  AMERICAN  HORSE  31 

far  as  he  liked  across  unknown  lands,  made  him 
eoldier,  settler,  trader,  merchant;  enabled  him  indeed 
to  build  a  West  that  had  grown  into  giant  stature 
even  before  the  day  of  steam. 


CHAPTER  V 

THE   PATHWAY    OF    THE    WATERS* 

On  a  busy  street  of  a  certain  Western  city  there 
appeared,  not  long  ago,  a  figure  whose  peculiarities 
attracted  the  curious  attention  of  the  throng  through 
which  he  passed.  It  was  a  man,  tall,  thin,  bronzed, 
wide-hatted,  long-haired,  clad  in  the  garb  of  a  day 
gone  by.  How  he  came  to  the  city,  whence  he  came, 
or  why,  it  boots  little  to  ask.  There  he  was,  one  of 
the  old-time  ''long-haired  men"  of  the  West.  His 
face,  furrowed  with  the  winds  of  the  high  plains  and 
of  the  mountains,  and  bearing  still  the  lines  of  bold- 
ness and  confidence,  had  in  these  new  surroundings 
taken  on  a  shade  of  timorous  anxiety.  His  eye  was 
disturbed.  At  his  temples  the  hair  was  gray,  and 
the  long  locks  that  dropped  to  his  shoulders  were 
thin  and  pitiful.  A  man  of  another  day,  of  a  bygone 
countr}%  he  babbled  of  scoutings,  of  warfare  with 
savages,  of  the  chase  of  the  buffalo.  None  knew 
what  he  spoke.     He  babbled,  grieved,  and  vanished. 

Into  the  same  city  there  wandered,  from  a  some- 
what more  recent  West,  another  man  grown  swiftly 


•The  Century  Magazine,  November,  1901. 
32 


THE  PATHWAY  OF  THE  WATERS      33 

old.  Ten  years  earlier  this  figure  miglit  have  been 
seen  over  all  the  farming-lands  of  the  West,  most 
numerous  near  the  boom  towns  and  the  land-offices. 
He  was  here  transplanted,  set  down  in  the  greatest 
boom  town  of  them  all,  but,  alas!  too  old  and  too 
alien  to  take  root. 

He  wore  the  same  long-tailed  coat,  the  same  white 
hat  that  marked  him  years  ago — tall-crowned,  not 
wide-rimmed;  the  hat  that  swept  across  the  Missouri 
Eiver  in  the  early  eighties.  His  beard  was  now  grown 
gray,  his  eye  watery,  his  expression  subdued,  and  no 
longed  buoyantly  and  irresistibly  hopeful.  His  pencil, 
as  ready  as  ever  to  explain  the  price  of  lots  or  land, 
had  lost  its  erstwhile  convincing  logic.  From  his  soul 
had  departed  that  strange,  irrational,  adorable  belief, 
birthright  of  the  American  that  was,  by  which  he  was 
once  sure  that  the  opportunities  of  the  land  that  bore 
him  were  perennial  and  inexhaustible.  This  man 
sought  now  no  greatness  and  no  glory.  He  wanted 
only  the  chance  to  make  a  living.  And,  think  you, 
he  came  of  a  time  when  a  man  might  be  a  carpenter 
at  dawn,  merchant  at  noon,  lawyer  by  night,  and  yet 
be  respected  every  hour  of  the  day,  if  he  deserved  it 
as  a  man- 
It  was  exceeding  sweet  to  be  a  savage.  It  is  pleasant 
to  dwell  upon  the  independent  character  of  Western 
life,  and  to  go  back  to  the  glories  of  that  land  and 


34  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

day  wlieii  a  man  who  had  a  rifle  and  a  saddle-blanket 
was  sure  of  a  living,  and  need  ask  neither  advice  nor 
permission  of  any  living  soul.  Those  days,  vivid,  ad- 
venturous, heroic,  will  have  no  counterpart  on  the 
earth  again.  Those  early  Americans,  who  raged  and 
roared  across  the  West,  how  nnspeakably  swift  was 
the  play  in  which  they  had  their  part!  There, 
surely,  was  a  drama  done  under  the  strictest  law  of 
the  unities,  under  the  sun  of  a  single  day. 

Xo  fiction  can  ever  surpass  in  vividness  the  vaet, 
heroic  drama  of  the  West.  The  clang  of  steel,  the 
shoutings  of  the  captains,  the  stimulus  of  wild  ad- 
venture— of  these  things,  certainly,  there  has  been 
no  lack.  There  has  been  close  about  us  for  two  hun- 
dred years  the  sweeping  action  of  a  story  keyed 
higher  than  any  fiction,  more  unbelievably  bold,  more 
incredibly  keen  in  spirit.  And  now  we  come  upon 
the  tame  and  tranquil  sequel  of  that  vivid  play  of 
human  action.  "Anticlimax !"  cries  all  that  human- 
ity that  cares  to  think,  that  dares  to  regret,  that 
once  dared  to  hope.  "Tell  us  of  the  West  that  was," 
demands  that  humanity,  and  with  the  best  of  warrant ; 
"play  for  us  again  the  glorious  drama  of  the  past, 
and  let  us  see  again  the  America  that  onoe  was 
ours." 

Historian,  artist,  novelist,  poet,  must  all  in  some 
moasure  fail  to  answer  this  demand,  for  each  genera- 


THE  PATHWAY  OF  THE  WATERS      35 

lion  buries  its  own  dead,  and  eax3h  epoch,  to  be  un- 
derstood, must  be  seen  in  connection  with  its  own       / 
living  causes  and  effects  and  interwoven  surro-und- 
ings.     Yet  it  is  pleasant  sometimes  to  seek  among     i 
causes,  and  I  conceive  that  a  certain  interest  may  at-     * 
tach  to  a  quest  that  goes  farther  than  a  mere  sum-     . 
mons  for  the  spurred  and  booted  Western  dead  to     ', 
rise.     Let  us  ask.  What  was  the  West  ?    What  caused 
its  growth  and  its  changes?     What  was  the  Western 
man,  and  why  did  his  character  become  what  it  wafi  ? 
T\Tiat  future  is  there  for  the  West  to-day  ?    We  shall 
find  that  the  answers  to  these  questions  run  wider 
than  the  West,  and,  indeed,  wider  than  America. 

In  the  pursuit  of  this  line  of  thought  we  need  ask 
only  a  few  broad  premises.  These  premises  may 
leave  us  not  so  much  of  self-vaunting  as  we  might 
wish,  and  may  tend  to  diminish  our  esteem  of  the  im- 
portance of  individual  as  well  as  national  accomplish- 
ment; for,  after  all  and  before  all,  we  are  but  flecks 
on  the  surface  of  the  broad,  moving  ribbon  of  fate. 
We  axe  all, — Easterner  and  Westerner,  dweller  of 
the  Old  World  or  the  New,  bond  or  free,  of  to-day  or 
of  yesterday, — ^but  the  result  of  the  mandate  that 
bade  mankind  to  increase  and  multiply,  that  bade 
mankind  to  take  possession  of  the  earth.  We  have 
each  of  us  taken  over  temporarily  that  portion  of 
the  earth  and  its  fullness  allotted  or  made  possible  to 


36  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

UB  by  that  Providence  to  which  all  things  belong. 
We  have  each  of  ns  done  this  along  the  lines  of  the 
least  possible  resistance,  for  this  is  the  law  of  organic 
life. 

The  story  of  the  taking  over  of  the  earth  into  pos- 
session has  been  but  a  story  of  travel.  Aryan,  Cymri, 
Goth,  Vandal,  Westerner — ^they  are  all  one.  The  ques- 
tion of  occupying  the  unoccupied  world  has  been  only 
a  question  of  transportation,  of  invasion,  and  of  oc- 
cupation along  the  lines  of  least  resistance.  Hence 
we  have  at  hand,  in  a  study  of  transportation  of  the 
West  at  different  epochs,  a  clue  that  will  take  us 
very  near  to  the  heart  of  things. 

We  read  to-day  of  forgotten  Phenicia  and  of  an- 
cient Britain.  They  were  unlike,  because  they  were 
far  apart.  The  ancient  captains  who  directed  the 
ships  that  brought  them  approximately  together  were 
great  men  in  their  da}',  fateful  men.  The  captains  of 
transportation  that  made  all  America  one  land  are 
still  within  our  reach,  great  men,  fateful  men;  and 
they  hold  a  romantic  interest  under  their  grim  tale 
of  material  things.  You  and  I  live  where  they  said 
we  must  live.  It  was  they  who  marked  out  the  very 
spot  where  the  fire  was  to  rise  upon  your  hearth-stone. 
You  have  married  a  certain  Phenician  because  they 
Baid  that  this  must  be  your  fate.  Your  children 
were  born  because  some  captain  said  they  should  be. 


THE  PATHWAY  0>F  THE  WATERS      37 

You  are  here  not  of  your  own  volition.     The  day 
of  volitions,  let  us  rememher,  is  gone. 

The  West  was  sown  by  a  race  of  giants,  and  reaped 
by  a  race  far  dilferent  and  in  a  day  dissimilar.  Though 
the  day  of  rifle  and  ax,  of  linsey-woolsey  and  hand- 
ground  meal,  vrent  before  the  time  of  trolley-cars  and 
self-binders,  of  purple  and  fine  linen,  it  must  be  ob- 
served that  in  the  one  day  or  the  other  the  same 
causes  were  at  work,  and  back  of  all  these  causes 
were  the  original  law  and  the  original  mandate.  The 
force  of  this  primeval  impulse  was  behind  all  those 
early  actors,  and  Eoundhead  Cavalier,  praying  man 
and  fighting  man,  who  had  this  continent  for  a  stage. 
It  was  behind  the  men  that  followed  inland  from 
the  sea  the  first  prophets  of  adventure.  It  is  behind 
us  to-day.  The  Iliad  of  the  West  is  only  the  story 
of  a  mighty  pilgrimage. 

When  the  Spaniard  held  the  mouth  of  the  Great 
River,  the  Frenchman  the  upper  sources,  the  Ameri- 
can only  the  thin  line  of  coast  whose  West  was  the 
Alleghanies,  how  then  did  the  west-bound  adventurers 
travel,  these  folk  who  established  half  a  dozen  homes 
for  every  generation?  The  answer  would  seem  easy. 
They  traveled  as  did  the  Cimri,  the  Goths — in  the 
easiest  way  they  could.  It  was  a  day  of  raft  and 
boat,  of  saddle-horse  and  pack-horse,  of  ax  and  rifle. 


38  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

and  little  other  luggage.  Mankind  followed  the  path- 
ways of  the  waters. 

Bishop  Berkeley,  prophetic  soul,  wrote  his  line: 
^^estward  the  course  of  empire  takes  its  way."  The 
public  has  always  edited  it  to  read  the  "star^'  of 
empire  that  "takes  it  wa/'  to  the  West.  If  one 
will  lead  this  poem  in  connection  with  a  government 
census  map,  he  can  not  fail  to  see  how  excellent  is 
the  amendment.  Excellent  census  map,  that  holds 
between  its  covers  the  greatest  poem,  the  greatest 
drama  ever  written!  Excellent  census  map,  that 
marks  the  center  of  population  of  America  with  a 
literal  star,  and,  at  the  curtain  of  each  act,  the 
lapse  of  each  ten  years,  advances  this  star  with 
the  progress  of  the  drama,  westward,  westward,  ever 
westward!  Excellent  scenario,  its  scheme  done  in 
red  and  yellow  and  brown,  patched  each  ten  years, 
ragged,  blurred,  until,  after  a  hundred  years,  the 
scheme  is  finished,  and  the  color  is  solid  all  across 
the  page,  showing  that  the  end  has  come,  and  that 
the  land  has  yielded  to  the  law ! 

The  first  step  of  this  star  of  empire,  that  con- 
cluded in  1800,  barely  removed  it  from  its  initial 
point  on  the  Chesapeake.  The  direction  was  to- 
ward the  southwestern  corner  of  Pennsylvania.  The 
government  at  Washington,  young  as  it  was,  knew 
that  the  Ohio  River,  reached  from  the  North  by  a 


THE  PATHWAY  OF  THE  WATERS      39 

dozen  trails  from  the  Great  Lakes,  and  running  out 
into  that  West  which  even  then  was  coveted  by  three 
nations,  was  of  iteelf  a  priceless  possession.  The 
restless  tide  of  humanity  spread  from  that  point  ac- 
cording to  principles  as  old  as  the  world.  Having 
a  world  before  them  from  which  to  choose  their 
homes,  the  men  of  that  time  sought  out  those  homes 
along  the  easiest  lines. 

The  first  thrust  of  the  out-bound  population  was 
not  along  the  parallels  of  latitude  westward,  as  is 
supposed  to  be  the  rule,  but  to  the  south  and  south- 
east, into  the  valleys  of  the  Appalachians,  where  the 
hills  would  raise  com,  and  the  streams  would  carry 
it.  The  early  emigrants  learned  that  a  raft  would 
eat  nothing,  that  a  boat  runs  well  down-stream.  Men 
still  clung  to  the  seaboard  region,  though  even  then 
they  exemplified  the  great  law  of  population  that 
designates  the  river  valleys  to  be  the  earliest  and  most 
permanent  centers  of  population.  The  first  trails  of 
the  Appalachians  were  the  waterways. 

Dear  old  New  England,  the  land  sought  out  as  the 
home  of  religious  freedom,  and  really  perhaps  the 
most  intolerant  land  the  earth  ever  knew,  some- 
times flatters  herself  that  she  is  the  mother  of  the 
West.  Not  so.  New  England  holds  mortgages  only 
on  the  future  of  the  West,  not  on  its  past.  The 
first  outshoots  of  the  seaboard  civilization  to  run 


40  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

fortli  into  the  West  did  not  trace  back  to  the  stem 
and  rock-bound  shore  where  the  tolerants  were  pim- 
ishing  those  who  did  not  agree  with  them. 

'New  York,  then,  was  perhaps  the  parent  of  the 
West  ?  By  no  means,  however  blandly  pleasant  that 
belief  might  be  to  many  for  whom  New  York  must 
be  ever  the  first  cause  and  center  of  the  American  civ- 
ilization, not  the  reflection-point  of  that  civilization. 
The  rabid  Westerner  may  enjoy  the  thought  that 
neither  New  England  nor  New  York  was  the  actual 
ancestor.  Perhaps  he  may  say  that  the  West  had  no 
parent,  but  was  born  Minerva-like.  In  this  he  would 
be  wrong.  The  real  mother  of  the  West  was  the  South. 
It  was  she  who  bore  this  child,  and  it  has  been  much 
at  her  expense  that  it  has  grown  so  large  and  ma- 
tured so  swiftly.  If  you  sing  "arms  and  the  man" 
for  the  West,  you  must  sing  Southerner  and  not  Pur- 
itan, knight-errant  and  not  psalmodist.  The  path 
of  empire  had  its  head  on  the  Chesapeake.  There 
w^as  the  American  Ararat. 

"The  great  American  journeyings  were  far  under 
way  before  Xew  England  appeared  to  realize  that 
there  was  a  greater  America  toward  the  West.  The 
musket  bearers  of  the  New  England  states,  the  fight- 
ing men  of  the  South,  and  the  riflemen  of  what 
jnight  already  have  been  called  the  West,  had  fin- 


THE  PATHWAY  OF  THE  WATERS   41 

ished  the  Revolutionary  War  long  before  jSTew  Eng- 
land had  turned  her  eyes  westward.  The  pilgrim- 
age over  the  Appalachians  was  made,  the  new  prov- 
inces of  Kentucky  and  Tennessee  were  fighting  for 
a  commerce  and  a  commercial  highway  of  their  own^ 
while  yet  the  most  that  Xew  England,  huddled 
along  her  st^m  and  rock-bound  shore,  could  do  was 
to  talk  of  shutting  off  these  Westerners  from  their 
highway  of  the  Mississippi,  and  compelling  them  to 
trade  back  with  the  tidewater  provinces  of  what  was 
not  yet  an  America. 

^^Canny  and  cautious,  N'ew  York  and  New  England 
were  ready  to  fear  this  new  country  in  which  they  re- 
fused to  believe;  were  ready  to  cripple  it,  although 
they  declined  to  credit  its  future.  The  pioneers  of 
the  South  fought  their  way  into  the  West.  'New 
England  bought  her  way,  and  that  after  all  the  serious 
problems  of  pioneering  had  been  solved.  The  'Ohio 
Land  Company'  of  Rufus  Putnam,  Benjamin  Tucker 
and  their  none  too  honest  associate,  the  New  Bedford 
preacher,  Manasseh  Cutler,  were  engaged  in  the  first 
great  land  steal  ever  known  in  the  West.  They  did 
not  fight  the  Indians  for  their  holdings,  but  went  to 
Congress,  and  with  practical  methods  secured  five 
million  acres  of  land  at  a  price  of  about  eight  or  nine 
cents  an  acre;  the  first  offer  to  Congress  being  a 
million  dollars  for  a  million  and  a  half  acres  of  what 


42  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

is  now  the  state  of  Ohio,  the  payment  to  be  in  soldiers' 
scrip,  worth  twelve  cents  on  the  dollar. 

''^The  Ohio  company  took  its  settlers  out  to  its  new 
land  as  a  railway  does  its  colonists  to-day.  Eeaching 
the  Ohio  River,  they  descended  it  in  a  bullet-proof 
barge,  called  'with  strange  irony*  the  'Mayflower/ 
They  entered  the  mouth  of  the  Muskingum  and 
anchored  under  the  guns  of  a  United  States  fort."* 

This  is  how  New  England  got  into  the  West. 
There  is  no  hero  story  there.  The  men  of  the 
South,  men  of  ITorth  Carolina  and  Virginia,  most 
of  whom  had  come  from  Pennsylvania  and  dropped 
down  along  the  east  slope  of  the  Appalachians,  a« 
it  were  sparring  these  mountain  ranges  for  an  open- 
ing until  at  length  they  had  found  the  ways  of  the 
game  trails  and  Indian  trails  from  headwater  to 
headwater,  and  so  had  reached  the  west-bound  streams 
— these  actual  adventurers  had  built  Harrodsburg 
and  Boonesborough  seventeen  years  before  the  Ohio 
company  entered  the  Muskingum.  Already  there 
was  a  West;  even  a  West  far  beyond  Boonesborough 
and  its  adjacent  corn  grounds. 

This  actual  record  of  the  upper  states  in  the  ex- 
ploration of  the  West  is  to-day  not  generally  remem- 
bered nor  understood.  Sometimes  an  ardent  New 
Englander  will  explain  that  the  Puritans  would  have 


'Kephart 


THE  PATHWAY  OF  THE  WATERS   43 

earlier  pressed  out  westward  had  it  not  been  for  the 
barrier  of  the  Iroquois  on  their  western  borders. 
They  read  their  history  but  ill  who  do  not  know 
that  the  Iroquois  trafficked  alwaya  with  the  English 
as  against  the  French;  whereas  Kentucky,  the  land 
opened  by  the  Southern  pioneers,  was  occupied  by 
a  more  dangerous  red  population,  made  up  of  many 
tribes,  having  no  policy  but  that  of  war,  and  no 
friends  outside  of  each  separate  motley  hunting  party, 
sure  to  be  at  knife's  point  with  either  white  or  red 
strangers.  The  most  difficult  and  most  dangerous 
frontier  was  that  of  the  South ;  yet  it  was  the  South 
that  won  through. 

There  are  two  explanations  of  this  incontroverti- 
ble historical  fact.  One  lies  perhaps  in  the  general 
truth  that  early  pioneers  nearly  always  cling  to  the 
river  valleys,  perhaps  not  more  for  purposes  of  trans- 
|>ortation  by  water  than  in  obedience  to  a  certaia  in- 
stinct that  seems  to  hold  the  pathways  of  the 
streams  as  foreordained  guidance.  The  man  that  is 
lost  in  the  wUdemess  hails  with  delight  the  appear- 
ance of  a  stream.  It  will  lead  him  somewhere;  it 
will  guide  him  back  agaia.  Near  it  will  be  game, 
near  it,  too,  rich  soil.  The  man  that  enters  the  wil- 
derness deliberately   does  so  along  the  waterways. 

All  the  greet  initial  explorations  have  been  made  in 
this  way.   The  men  of  Kentucky  anxi  Tennessee  having 


44  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

reached  the  headwaters  of  the  Kentucky,  the  Tennes- 
eee,  the  Holston  or  kindred  riverways,  moved  out  into 
their  promised  land  along  paths,  as  it  were,  foreor- 
dained. The  rivers  of  the  North  did  not  run  out  into 
the  West,  but  pointed  ever  toward  the  sea.  This  is  one 
explanation  of  the  somewhat  inglorious  part  of  New 
England  in  the  discovery  of  the  West.  It  does  not 
explain  her  narrowness  of  view  in  regard  to  that 
West  after  it  had  been  discovered  by  others;  neither 
does  this  geographical  explanation,  in  the  opinion  of 
many,  cover  the  main  phenomena  of  her  timid 
attitude  in  regard  to  Western  exploration. 

The  true  reason,  in  the  belief  of  these  students,  is 
to  be  found  in  the  character  of  the  New  England 
population,  as  compared  to  the  bolder  breed  of  men 
who  overran  the  western  sections  of  Pennsylvania 
and  for  two  generations  were  in  continuous  touch 
with  the  wilderness  and  its  savagery.  This  subject 
is  taken  up  interestingly  by  Horace  Kephart,  a 
scholar  of  much  acquaintance  with  early  American 
history,  in  the  course  of  an  able  paper.  It  is  very 
much  worth  while  for  any  one  who  wishes  an  actual 
picture  of  the  march  across  the  Appalachians  to  read 
his  conclusions. 

"In  a  vague  way  we  think  of  all  the  East  as  old,'' 
says  this  writer,  "and  all  the  West  as  new.  We 
picture  civilization  as  advancing  westward  from  the 


THE  PATHWAY  OF  THE  WATERS      45 

Atlantic  in  a  long,  straight  front,  like  a  wave  or  a 
line  of  battle.  But  in  point  of  fact  it  was  not  so. 
There  was  a  permanent  settlement  of  Europeans  a 
thousand  miles  to  the  west  of  us  before  the  Pilgrims 
landed  at  Pl}Tnouth.  Cahokia  and  Kaskaskia  were 
thriving  villages  before  Baltimore  was  founded ;  and 
our  own  city  of  St.  Louis  was  building  in  the  same 
year  that  New  Jersey  became  a  British  possession. 
At  a  time  when  Daniel  Boone  was  hunting  beaver 
on  the  Osage  and  the  Missouri,  Fenimore  Cooper  was 
drawing  the  types  for  future  ^Leatherstocking  Tales' 
from  his  neighbors  in  a  Vilderness'  only  a  hundred 
and  fifty  miles  from  Xew  York  City. 

"American  settlement  advanced  toward  the  Mis- 
sissippi in  the  shape  of  a  wedge,  of  which  the  en- 
tering edge  was  first  Lancaster,  in  Pennsylvania, 
then  the  Shenandoah  valley,  then  Louisville,  and 
finally  St.  Louis.  When  the  second  census  of  the 
United  States  was  taken,  in  1800,  nearly  all  the 
white  inhabitants  of  our  country  lived  in  a  tri- 
angle formed  by  a  diagonal  southwestward  from 
Pori;land,  Maine,  to  the  mouth  of  the  Tennessee 
River,  here  meeting  another  diagonal  running  north- 
westward from  Savannah,  with  the  Atlantic  for  a 
base.  Central  and  western  New  York,  northern 
Pennsylvania,  and  all  the  territory  nori;h  of  the 
Ohio  River,  save  in  its  immediate  vicinity,  were  al- 


i^  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

moel  Tminhabited  by  whites,  and  so  were  Georgia, 
Alabama,  and  Mississippi.  Yet  the  state  of  Ken- 
tucky bad  half  as  many  people  as  MaasacbuBetts, 
and  Tennessee  bad  already  been  admitted  into  the 
Union. 

"As  a  rule,  geographical  expansion  proceeds  along 
the  linee  of  least  resistance,  following  the  natural 
highways  afforded  by  navigable  rivers  and  open 
[plains.  It  is  easily  turned  aside  by  mountain  chains, 
dense  forests,  and  hostile  natives.  Especially  was 
this  true  in  the  days  before  railroads.  But  the  de- 
velopment of  our  older  West  shows  a  striking  ex- 
ception to  this  rule;  for  the  entering  wedge  was  act- 
ually driven  through  one  of  the  most  rugged,  diffi- 
cult, and  inhospitable  regions  to  be  found  along  the 
whole  frontier  of  the  British  possessions. 

^^This  fact  is  strange  enough  to  fix  our  attention ; 
but  it  is  doubly  strange  when  we  consider  that  there 
was  no  climatic,  political  nor  economic  necessity  for 
such  defiance  of  nature's  laws.  We  can  see  why  the 
Mississippi  should  have  been  explored  from  the  nortli, 
rather  than  from  its  mouth,  because  Canada  was  set- 
tled before  Louisiana,  and  it  is  easier  to  float  down- 
stream than  to  pole  or  oordelle  against  the  current. 
But  why  was  not  the  West  entered  and  settled 
through  the  obviously  ee^y  course  of  the  Mohawk 
Valley? 


THE  PATHWAY  OF  THE  WATEES      47 

^^eyond  this  valley  were  gentle  slopes,  and  many 
a  route  practicable  for  settlers  into  the  rich  country 
of  Ohio.  The  central  trail  of  the  Iroquois,  beaten 
smoother  than  a  wagon-road,  ran  straight  west  from 
Albany,  through  the  fairest  portion  of  New  York, 
to  the  present  site  of  Buffalo,  and  thence  followed 
the  southern  shore  of  Lake  Erie  into  Ohio.  Where 
it  crossed  the  Genesee,  the  old  war-trail  of  the  Sen- 
ecas  branched  off  to  the  south,  passing  behind  the 
farthermost  ramparts  of  the  Alleghanies,  to  the  forks 
of  the  Ohio.  Moccasined  feet  traveling  over  these 
trails  for  centuries  had  worn  them  from  three  to 
twelve  inches  into  the  ground,  so  that  they  were  easy 
to  follow  on  the  darkest  night  These  were  only 
two  of  several  well-marked  routes  from  ancient  Al- 
bany to  the  new  West.  It  was  to  this  easy  communi- 
cation with  the  country  beyond  the  Appalachians 
that  the  Iroquois  owed  their  commanding  position 
on  the  continent 

"These  Iroquois  were  in  the  way,  to  be  sure;  but 
with  them  New  York  had  every  advantage  over  her 
sieter  provinces.  Her  policy  toward  these  powerful 
Indians  was  conciliatory.  She  was  allied  with  theiu 
against  the  French.  The  Six  Nations  ravaged  the 
frontiers  of  all  the  other  colonies,  from  ^Massachu- 
setts  to  Carolina,  and  carried  their  conquests  to  the 
Mississippi,  but  they  spared  New  York  and  even  in- 


48  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

vited  her  to  build  forts  on  their  border  as  outposts 
against  the  French.  New  York  had  the  most  influ- 
ential Indian  agent  of  his  time  in  Sir  William  John- 
son, who  had  married  the  sister  of  the  Mohawk  chief 
Brant,  and  by  her  had  several  sons  who  were  war- 
chiefs  of  the  Iroquois.  In  1745  the  Iroquois  even 
oeded  to  j^ew  York  a  strip  of  land  sixty  miles  wide, 
along  the  southern  shores  of  lakes  Ontario  and  Erie, 
extending  to  the  modern  Cleveland.  It  should  have 
been  easy  for  the  Knickerbockers  to  secure  passage 
for  their  emigrants  into  the  western  country  had 
they  chosen  to  ask  it. 

"On  the  other  hand,  the  southern  colonies  had  no 
easy  access  to  the  West,  j^ature  herself  had  bidden 
these  people  to  rest  content  in  their  tidewater  re- 
gions, and  frowned  upon  any  westward  expansion 
by  interposing  the  mighty  barriers  of  the  Blue  Eidge 
and  the  Alleghanies,  rising  tier  beyond  tier  in  parallel 
chains  from  northern  Pennsylvania  to  Alabama. 
Few  trails  crossed  these  mountains.  From  base  to 
summit  they  were  clad  in  dense  forest,  matted  into 
jungle  by  luxuriant  undergrowth.  Xo  one  knew 
what  lay  beyond  them,  nor  how  far  through  this 
'forest,  savage,  harsh,  impregnable,'  the  traveler  must 
bore  until  he  reached  land  fit  for  settlement. 

"It  was  well  known,  hov:ever,  that  the  trans-AlIe- 
ghany  region,  whatever  might  be  its  economic  fea- 


THE  PATHWAY  OF  THE  WATERS      49 

tures,  was  dangerous  ground.  The  Indians  themselves 
could  not  occupy  it,  for  it  had  been  for  ages  the  com- 
mon battle-ground  of  opposing  tribes.  Any  savage 
met  within  its  confines  was  sure  to  be  on  the  war-path 
against  any  and  all  comers.  He  that  entered  took 
his  life  in  his  hand. 

^'Thus  the  chances  of  success  in  any  westward 
jnovement  were  in  favor  of  New  York  and  New 
England,  and  against  Pennsylvania.  Yet  it  was  the 
latter  that  did  the  work.  Central  and  western  New 
York  remained  a  wilderness  until  Missouri  was  set- 
tling with  Americans.  New  England  took  little  or 
BO  part  in  Western  affairs  until,  the  West  having  been 
won,  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut,  calmly  over- 
stepping New  York  and  Pennsylvania,  laid  thrifty 
hand  upon  the  public  domain  north  of  Pittsburg  and 
west  to  the  ]\Iississippi. 

'^e  have  seen  that  the  West  was  ax^tually  entered 
by  the  most  difficult  and  hostile  route,  and  this  in 
spite  of  political  and  economic  reasons  for  choosing 
a  more  northerly  and  easier  line  of  advance.  I  do 
not  remember  that  this  has  ever  before  been  pointed 
out;  but  it  is  a  fact  of  deep  significance,  for  it  de- 
termined what  should  be  the  temper  of  the  great 
West,  and  what  should  be  its  course  of  development. 
"The  wedge  of  settlement  was  driven  through  the 
beart  of  the  Alleghanies  because  there  dwelt  at  the 


50  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

foot  of  the  mountains  a  people  more  aggressive,  more 
daring,  and  more  independent  than  the  tidewater 
stock.  This  people  acted  on  its  own  initiative,  not 
only  without  government  aid,  but  sometimes  in  de- 
fiance of  government.  It  won  to  the  American  flag 
not  only  the  central  West,  but  the  Northwest  and 
Southwest  as  well;  and  it  was,  for  the  most  part, 
the  lineal  descendants  of  these  men  that  first,  of 
Americans,  explored  the  far  West,  and  subdued  it  for 
future  settlement. 

''^This  explains  why  Missouri,  rather  than  the  north- 
em  tier  of  new  states,  became  in  its  turn  the  vanguard 
and  outpost  of  civilization,  as  Kentucky  and  Tennes- 
see had  been  before  her,  and  Virginia  and  Pennsyl- 
V£Lnia  before  them.  It  explains  why,  when  mountain 
and  forest  barriers  had  been  left  behind,  and  the  vast 
Western  plain  offered  countless  parallel  routes  of 
travel  to  the  Eockies,  such  routes  were  not  used,  but 
all  the  great  transcontinental  trails,  whether  to 
Santa  Ee,  California,  or  Oregon,  focused  for  half 
a  century  at  St.  Louis  or  Independence.  It  explains 
why  the  majority  of  our  famous  scouts  and  explorers 
and  Indian  fighters  were  men  whose  strain  went  back 
to  the  Shenandoah  valley  or  the  Yadkin,  and  why 
most  of  them  could  trace  their  descent  still  farther 
back  to  Pennsylvania,  mother  of  Western  pioneers.^' 

There  is  much  that  is  convincing  in  this  study  of 


THE  PATHWAY  OF  THE  WATERS      51 

facts  and  motives;  yet  perhaps  tbe  gentler  and 
broader  view  is  not  that  of  personnel  but  of  geo- 
graphy. I  myself  am  more  disposed  to  believe  that 
St.  Louis  became  great  by  reason  of  her  situation 
on  the  great  interior  pathways  of  the  waters;  though 
all  this  may  be  said  with  no  jot  of  abatement  in 
admiration  for  the  magnificent  daring  and  deter- 
mination of  those  men  of  the  lower  slopes  of  the 
Appalachians  who,  as  history  shows  simply  and  un- 
mistakably, were  really  the  pioneers  of  the  eastern, 
the  middle  and  the  most  western  portions  of  the 
splendid  empire  of  the  West  Let  us  reserve  for  a 
later  chapter  the  more  specific  study  of  this  typical 
adventurer  and  his  origin,  and  pass  for  the  present 
to  the  general  consideration  of  the  figure  that  we 
may  call  the  American  west^bound  man. 

We  must  remember  that  there  had  been  two  or  three 
full  American  generations  to  produce  him,  this  man 
that  first  dared  turn  away  from  the  seaboard  and  set 
his  face  toward  the  sinking  of  the  sun,  toward  the 
dark  and  mysterious  mountains  and  forests,  which 
then  encompassed  the  least  remote  land  fairly  to  be 
called  the  West  Two  generations  had  produced  a 
man  different  from  the  Old-World  type.  Free  air 
and  good  food  had  given  him  abundant  brawn.  He 
was  tall,  with  Anak  in  his.  frame.    Little  fat  cloyed 


52  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

the  free  play  of  liis  muscles,  and  there  belonged 
to  Mm  the  heritage  of  the  courage  that  comes  of  good 
heart  and  lungs.  He  was  a  splendid  man  to  haye  for 
an  ancestor,  this  tall  and  florid  athlete  that  never 
heard  of  athletics.  His  face  was  thin  and  aquiline, 
his  look  high  and  confident,  his  eye  blue,  his  speech 
reserved.  You  may  see  this  same  man  yet  in  those  re- 
stricted parts  of  this  country  which  remain  fit  to  be 
called  American.  You  may  see  him  sometimes  in  the 
mountains  of  Tennessee,  the  brakes  of  Arkansas  or 
Missouri,  where  the  old  strain  has  remained  most 
pure.  You  might  have  seen  him  over  all  the  West 
in  the  generation  preceding  our  own. 

In  time  this  early  outbound  man  learned  that  there 
were  rivers  that  ran,  not  to  the  southwest  and  into 
the  sea,  but  outward,  beyond  the  mountains  and  to- 
ward the  setting  sun.  The  winding  trails  of  the 
Alleghanies  led  one  finally  to  rivers  that  ran  tx)- 
ward  Kentuck}',  Tennessee,  even  farther  out  into  that 
unknown,  tempting  land  which  still  was  called  the 
West.  Thus  it  came  that  the  American  genius  broke 
entirely  away  from  salt-water  traditions,  asked  no 
longer  "^^Wliat  cheer  ?"  from  the  ships  that  came  from 
across  the  seas,  clung  no  longer  to  the  customs,  the 
costumes,  the  precedents  or  standards  of  the  past. 

There  came  the  day  of  buckskin  and  woolsey,  of 
rifle  and  ax,  of  men  curious  for  adventures,  of  homes 


THE  PATHWAT  OF  THE  WATEES      53 

built  of  logs  and  slabs,  with  puncbeons  for  floors, 
with  little  fields  about  them,  and  tiny  paths  that  led 
out  into  the  immeasurable  preserves  of  tlie  primeval 
forests.  A  few  tilings  held  intrinsic  value  at  that 
time — powder,  lead,  salt,  maize,  cow-bells,  women 
that  dared.  It  was  a  simple  but  not  an  ill  ancestr}-, 
this  that  turned  away  from  the  sea-coast  forever  and 
began  the  making  of  another  world.  It  was  the 
strong-limbed,  the  bold-hearted  that  traveled,  the 
weak  that  stayed  at  home. 

Thus  began  the  true  American  aristocracy,  the  aris- 
tocracy of  ability.  The  dashing  Cavalier,  your  high- 
churchman  from  England,  was  not  the  first  over  the 
Appalachians.  It  was  the  Protestant,  the  Quaker, 
the  dissenter,  the  independent  who  led  the  way  into 
another  world  and  into  another  order  of  things. 

Of  this  hardy  folk  who  left  home  when  yet  there 
was  no  need  of  so  doing,  and  who  purposed  never  to 
come  back  from  the  land  they  were  to  discover, — types 
of  that  later  proverb-making  Western  man  who  '''came 
to  stay," — let  us  seek  out  one  where  there  were  many, 
some  distant  Phenician,  some  master  of  ways  and 
means,  some  captain  of  his  time.  One  man  and  one 
community  may  serve  as  typical  of  this  epoch. 

In  1779  one  James  Ptobertson,  of  the  Watauga  set- 
tlements of  N'orth  Carolina,  a  steadfast  man,  heard 
certain  voices  that  called  him  to  the  West.     Jame? 


54  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

«!« 

Kobertson,  the  steadfast,  forming  his  company  for 
this  uncertain,  perilous  enterprise,  said:  *^e  are 
the  advance  guard  of  a  civilization,  and  our  way 
is  across  the  continent''  Simple  words, — ^yet  that 
was  in  1779 ! 

Now,  for  the  building  of  this  one  town,  the  town 
that  is  now  the  city  of  Nashville,  and  the  capital 
of  Tennessee,  this  leader  had  gathered  three  hun- 
dred and  eighty  persons,  men,  women,  and  children. 
All  the  women  and  children,  one  hundred  and  thirty 
in  number,  in  charge  of  a  few  men,  went  by  boat, 
scow,  pirogue,  and  canoe,  in  the  winter-time,  down 
the  bold  waters  of  the  Holston  and  Tennessee  rivers. 
The  rest  traveled  as  beet  they  might  over  the  five  hun- 
dred miles  of  '^ajoe"  across  Kentucky.  Of  this 
whole  party  two  hundred  and  twenty-six  got  through 
alive. 

The  boat  party  had  many  hundreds  of  miles 
of  unknown  and  dangerous  waters  to  travel,  and  the 
journey  took  them  three  months,  a  time  longer  than 
it  now  requires  to  travel  around  the  world.  They 
ran  thirty  miles  of  rapids  on  the  shoals  of  the  Ten- 
nessee, pursued  and  fired  upon  by  Cherokees.  Of 
this  division  of  the  party  only  ninety-seven  got 
through  alive,  and  nine  of  these  were  wounded.  One 
was  drowned,  one  died  of  natural  causes  and  was 
buried,   and  the  rest  were  kiUed  by  the  Indians. 


4MM 


THE  PATHWAY  OF  THE  WATERS      55 

Their  voyage  was  indeed  "without  a  parallel  in  mod- 
ern history.''  Among  those  who  survived  the  hard- 
ships of  the  journey  was  Rachel  Donelson,  later  the 
wife  of  Andrew  Jackson. 

The  path  of  empire  in  America,  the  path  of  corn 
and  venison,  was  a  highway  that  never  ran  back- 
ward. These  men  would  never  leave  this  countrj-  now 
that  they  had  taken  it  But  what  a  tax  was  this  that 
the  barbaric  land  demanded  of  them !  In  November 
of  1780,  less  than  a  year  after  the  party  was  first  or- 
ganized, there  were  only  one  hundred  and  thirty-four 
persons  left  alive  out  of  the  original  three  hundred 
and  eighty,  but  in  the  settlement  itself  there  had 
not  been  a  natural  death.  The  Indians  killed  these 
settlers,  and  the  settlers  killed  the  Indians.  Death 
and  wounds  meant  nothing  to  the  adults.  The  very 
infants  learned  a  stoic  hardihood.  Out  of  two  hun- 
dred and  fifty-eix  survivors,  thirty-nine  were  killed 
in  sixty  days.  Out  of  two  hundred  and  seventeen 
survivors,  the  next  season  saw  but  one  hundred  and 
thirty-four  left. 

The  spring  of  1781  found  only  seventy  persons  left 
alive.  But  when  the  vote  was  cast  whether  to  stay 
or  return,  not  one  man  voted  to  give  up  the  fight. 
In  that  West  com  was  worth  one  hundred  and  sixty- 
five  dollars  a  bushel,  and  in  its  raising  the  rifle  was 
as  essential  as  the  plow.     Powder  and  lead  were  price- 


56  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

less.  Man  and  woman  together,  fearless,  changeless, 
they  held  the  land,  giving  back  not  one  inch  of  the 
west-bound  distance  they  had  gained ! 

In  1791  there  were  only  fifteen  persons  left  alive 
out  of  the  three  hundred  and  eighty  that  made  this 
American  migration.  There  had  been  only  one  nat- 
ural death  among  them.  In  snch  a  settlement  there 
was  no  such  thing  as  a  hero,  because  all  were  heroes. 
Each  man  was  a  master  of  weapons,  and  incapable  of 
fear.  No  fiction  ever  painted  a  hero  like  to  any  one 
of  these.  One  man,  after  having  been  shot  and  stab- 
bed many  times,  was  scalped  alive,  and  jested  at  it. 
A  little  girl  was  scalped  alive,  and  lived  to  forget  it. 
An  army  of  Indians  assaulted  the  settlement,  and 
fifteen  men  and  thirty  women  beat  them  off.  Mrs. 
Saliy  Buchanan,  a  forgotten  heroine,  molded  bullets 
all  one  night  during  an  Indian  attack,  and  on  the 
next  morning  gave  birth  to  a  son. 

This  was  the  ancestral  fiber  of  the  West.  What 
time  had  folk  like  these  for  powder-puff  or  ruffle,  for 
fan  or  Jeweled  snuff-box  ?  Their  garb  was  made  from 
the  skin  of  the  deer,  the  fox,  the  wolf.  Their  shoes 
were  of  hide,  their  beds  were  made  of  the  robes  of  the 
bear  and  buffalo.  They  laid  the  land  under  tribute. 
Yet,  so  far  from  mere  savagery  was  the  spirit  that 
animated  these  men  that  in  ten  years  after  they  had 
first  cut  away  the  forest  they  were  founding  a  college 


THE  PATHWAY  OF  THE  WATERS   57 

and  establislimg  a  court  of  law.  Read  this  forgotten 
history,  one  chapter  and  a  little  one,  in  the  history  of 
the  West,  and  then  turn,  if  you  like,  to  the  chapters 
of  fictiOTi  in  an  older  world.  You  have  your  choice 
of  lace  or  elkskin. 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE   MISSISSIPPI,    AND   INDEPENDENCE* 

There  was  a  generation  of  this  down-stream 
transportation,  and  it  built  up  the  first  splendid,  ag- 
gressive population  of  the  West — a  population  that 
continued  to  edge  farther  outward  and  farther  dowor 
stream.  The  settlement  at  Naehville,  the  settlements 
of  Kentucky,  were  at  touch  with  the  Ohio  Eiver,  the 
broad  highway  that  led  easily  down  to  the  yet  broader 
highway  of  the  ^Mississippi,  that  great,  mysterious 
etream  ao  intimately  connected  with  American  his- 
tory and  American  progress.  It  was  easy  to  get  to 
New  Orleans,  but  hard  to  get  back  over  the  Alle- 
ghanies.  Therefore,  out  of  the  mere  fact  that  water 
rung  downhill,  arose  one  of  the  earliest  and  most  dan- 
gerous political  problems  this  country  eyer  knew. 

The  riflemen  of  Sevier  and  Robertson  saved  Ten- 
nessee and  Kentucky  to  the  Union  only  that  they 
might  well-nigh  be  lost  again  to  Spain.  The  In- 
dian fighters  of  the  West  knew  little  how  the  scales 
trembled  in  the  balance  for  the  weak  young  govern- 
ment of  the  United  States  of  America,  lately  come 


♦The  Centiiry  Magazine;    Continued. 
58 


MISSISSIPPI,  INDEPENDENCE         59 

into  place  as  an  independent  power.  The  authorities 
at  Washington  dared  not  be  too  firm  with  France  or 
Spain,  or  even  with  England.  Diplomacy  juggled 
across  seas,  while  the  riflemen  of  the  West  fought  for 
the  opening  of  that  Great  Eiver  which  meant  every- 
thing for  them. 

The  league  of  Spain  and  the  Cherokees  kept  up  co- 
vert warfare  against  these  early  Westerners.  The 
stark,  stanch  men  of  Kobertson  and  Sevier  hunted, 
down  the  red  fighters  and  killed  them  one  by  one 
over  all  the  Western  hunting-grounds  and  corn- 
grounds;  and  then  they  rebelled  against  Washing- 
ton, and  were  for  setting  up  a  world  of  their  own. 
They  sent  in  a  petition,  a  veritable  prayer  from  the 
wilderness,  the  first  words  of  complaint  ever  wrung 
from  those  hardy  men. 

'^e  endured  almost  unconquerable  difficulties  in 
settling  this  Western  country,"  they  said,  "in  full 
confidence  that  we  should  be  enabled  to  send  our 
products  to  the  market  through  the  rivers  that 
water  the  ooTintry;  but  we  have  the  mortification  not 
only  to  be  excluded  from  that  channel  of  commerce 
by  a  foreign  nation,  but  the  Indians  are  rendered 
more  hostile  through  the  infiuence  of  that  nation." 

To  add  to  the  intricacy  of  this  situation,  now  came 
one  General  James  Wilkinfion,  late  of  a  quasi-connec- 
tion  with  the  Continental  army,  who  early  discovered' 


60  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

the  profit  of  the  trade  to  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi 
Discovering,  likewise,  the  discontent  of  the  West, 
which  was  almost  wholly  dependent  upon  that  river 
for  its  transportation,  he  conceived  the  pretty  idea 
of  handing  over  this  land  to  Spain,  believing  that  in 
the  confusion  consequent  upon  such  change  his  own 
personal  fortunes  must  necessarily  be  largely  bettered. 
The  archives  show  the  double  dealings  of  Wilkinson 
with  Spain,  Great  Britain,  and  the  United  States. 
He  played  fast  and  loose  with  friend  and  foe,  until  at 
length  he  found  his  own  level  and  met  in  part  his 
just  deserts. 

Meantime  the  stout  little  government  at  Washing- 
ton, knowing  well  enough  all  the  dangers  that 
threatened  it,  continued  to  work  out  the  problems 
crowding  upon  it.  Some  breathless,  trembling  years 
passed  by — ^years  full  of  wars  and  treaties  in  Europe 
as  well  as  in  America.  Then  came  the  end  of 
all  doubts  and  tremblings.  The  lying  intrigues 
at  the  mouth  of  America's  great  roadway  ceased  by 
virtue  of  that  purchase  of  territory  which  gave  to 
America  forever  this  mighty  Mississippi,  solemn,  ma- 
jestic, and  mysterious  stream,  perpetual  highway, 
an.d  henceforth  to  be  included  wholly  within  the  bor- 
ders of  the  West. 

The  acquisition  of  this  territory  was  due  not  so 
much  to  American  statesmanship  or  foresight  as  to 


MISSISSIPPI,  INDEPENDENCE  61 

either  the  freakishness  or  wisdom  of  Napoleon  Bona- 
parte, then  much  disturbed  by  the  native  revolts  in 
the  West  Indies,  and  harassed  by  the  impending  war 
with  England.  Whether  England  or  France  would 
land  troops  at  New  Orleans  was  long  a  question.  The 
year  that  saw  the  Mississippi  made  wholly  American 
was  one  mighty  in  the  hister}^  of  America  and  of  the 
world. 

The  date  of  the  Louisiana  Purchase  is  significant 
not  more  in  virtue  of  the  vast  domain  added  to  the 
West  than  because  of  the  fact  that  with  this  territory 
came  the  means  of  building  it  up  and  holding  it  to- 
gether. It  was  now  that  for  the  first  time  the 
solidarity  of  this  New  World  was  forever  assured. 
AVe  gained  a  million  uninhabited  miles — a,  million 
miles  of  country  that  will  one  day  support  its  thou- 
sands to  the  mile.  But  still  more  important,  we 
gained  the  right  and  the  ability  to  travel  into  it  and 
across  it  and  through  it.  France  had  failed  to  build 
roads  into  that  country,  and  thereafter  neither  France 
nor  any  other  foreign  power  might  ever  do  so. 

We  who  have  the  advantage  of  the  retrospect  un- 
derstand the  Mississippi  and  its  tributaries  far  bet- 
ter than  did  the  statesmen  of  a  hundred  years  ago. 
Indeed,  it  was  then  the  belief  of  many  of  the  ablest 
minds  that  we  ought  not  to  accept  this  Louisiana  Pur- 
chase even  as  a  gift.     Josiah  Adams,  in  discussing 


62  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

the  bill  for  the  admission  of  Louisiana  as  a  state, 
said':  '*I  am  compelled  to  declare  it  as  my  deliber- 
ate opinion  that  if  this  bill  passes,  the  bonds  of  this 
Union  are  virtually  dissolved;  that  the  states  which 
compose  it  are  free  from  their  moral  obligations; 
and  that,  as  it  will  be  the  right  of  all,  so  it  will  be 
the  duty  of  some,  to  prepare"  definitely  for  a  separa- 
tion, amicably  if  they  can,  violently  if  they  must" 

This  from  Massachusetts,  later  to  be  the  home  of 
abolition  and  of  centralization !  It  may  sit  ill  with 
the  sons  of  Massachusetts  to  reflect  that  their  own 
state  was  the  first  one  deliberately  to  propose  seces- 
sion. Still  more  advanced  was  the  attitude  of 
James  White,  who  painted  the  following  dismal  pic- 
ture of  that  West  which  was  to  be : 

"Louisiana  must  and  will  be  settled  if  we  hold  it, 
-and  with  the  very  population  that  would  otherwise 
occupy  part  of  our  present  territory.  Thus  our  citi- 
zens will  be  removed  to  the  immense  distance  of  two 
or  three  thousand  miles  from  the  capital  of  the 
Union,  where  they  will  scarcely  ever  feel  the  rays 
of  the  general  government;  their  affections  will  be- 
come alienated;  they  will  gradually  begin  to  view  us 
as  strangers;  they  will  form  other  commercial  con- 
nections, and  our  interests  will  become  distinct. 
These,  with  other  causes  that  human  wisdom  may 
not  now  foresee,  will  in  time  effect  a  separation,  and 


MISSISSIPPI,  INBEPENDENCE  63 

I  fear  our  bounds  will  be  fixed  nearer  to  our  bouses 
than  the  waters  of  the  Mississippi.  We  have  al- 
ready territory  enough,  and  when  I  contemplate  the 
evils  that  may  arise  to  these  States  from  this  intended 
incorporation  of  Louisiana  into  the  Union,  I  would 
rather  see  it  given  to  France,  to  Spain,  or  to  any 
other  nation  of  the  earth,  upon  the  meore  condition 
that  no  citizen  of  the  United  States  should  ever  set- 
tle within  its  limits,  than  to  see  the  territory  sold  for 
a  hundred  milUon  of  dollars  and  we  retain  the  sov- 
ereignty. .  .  .  And  I  do  say  that,  under  existing 
circumstances,  even  sup)posing  that  this  extent  of 
territory  was  a  valuable  acquisition,  fifteen  million 
dollars  was  a  most  enormous  sum  to  give." 

How  feeble  is  our  grasp  upon  the  future  may  be 
seen  from  the  last  utterance.  The  sum  of  fifteen 
million  dollars  seemed  "enormous.'^  To-day,  less  than 
a  century  from  that  time,  one  American  citizen  has 
in  his  lifetime  made  from  the  raw  resources  of  this 
land  a  fortune  held  to  be  two  hundred  and  sixty-six 
imllion  dollapg. 

One  Western  city,  located  in  that  despised  terri- 
tory, during  the  year  just  past  showed  sales  of 
grain  alone  amounting  to  one  hundred  and  twenty- 
three  million  three  hundred  thousand  dollars;  of 
live  stock  alone,  two  hundred  and  sixty-eight  mil- 
lion dollars;  of  wholesale  trade,  seven  hundred  and 


64  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

eighty-six  million  two  hundred  and  five  thousand 
dollars;  of  manufactures — where  manufactures  were 
once  held  impossible — ^the  total  of  seven  hundred  and 
forty-one  million  and  ninety-seven  thousand  dollars. 

It  was  once  four  weeks  from  Maine  to  Washington : 
it  is  now  four  days  from  Oregon.  The  total  wealth 
of  all  the  cities,  all  the  lands,  all  the  individuals  of 
that  once  despised  West,  runs  into  figures  that  sur- 
pass all  belief  and  all  comprehension.  And  this  has 
grown  up  within  less  than  a  hundred  years.  The 
people  have  outrun  all  the  wisdom  of  their  leaders. 
What  would  Daniel  Webster,  famous  New  Englander, 
doubter  and  discreditor  of  the  West,  say,  were  he  to 
know  the  West  to-day? 

Yet  the  men  of  that  day  were  not  so  much  to 
blame,  for  they  were  in  the  infancy  of  transporta- 
tion, and  as  no  army  is  better  than  its  commissary 
trains,  so  is  no  nation  better  than  its  transportation. 
We  were  still  in  the  crude,  primitive,  down-stream 
days.  Steam  had  not  yet  come  upon  the  great  in- 
terior waterways.  The  west-bound  mountain  roads 
across  the  Alleghanies  were  still  only  narrow  traclvs 
worn  by  the  feet  of  pack-horses  that  carried  mostly 
salt  and  bullets.  The  turnpikes  fit  for  wagon  traffic 
were  Eastern  affairs  only.  The  National  Road,  from 
Wheeling  to  the  westward,  was  restricted  in  its  stag- 
ing possibilities. 


MISSISSIPPI,  INDEPENDENCE  65 

Between  the  hardy  Western  populatian  and  its 
earlier  home  there  rose  the  high  barrier  of  tlie  Ap- 
palachianS;,  to  ascend  whose  streams  meant  a  long, 
grievous  and  dangerous  journey,  a  journey  com- 
mercially impracticable.  The  first  traffic  of  the 
old  mountain  road  was  in  salt  and  bullets,  and  it 
was  a  traffic  that  all  went  one  way.  The  diffi- 
culties of  even  this  crude  commerce  led  to  the 
establishment,  as  the  very  first  manufacture  ever 
begun  in  the  West,  of  works  for  the  production  of 
salt.  BuUitf  s  Lick,  on  Salt  Creek,  was  one  of  the 
earliest,  if  not  the  earliest,  manufacturing  commu- 
nity west  of  the  Alleghanies,  and  part  of  the  down- 
stream trade  of  the  day  was  in  carrying  kettles  from 
Louisville  down  the  Ohio  and  up  Salt  Creek  to  the 
lick.  This  route  was  in  hostile  Indian  countr}',  and 
every  voycage  held  its  own  terrors. 

We  may  note,  then,  the  beginning  of  the  commer- 
cial West  in  the  local  necessities  of  that  West 
For  the  first  west-bound  generation  the  prob- 
lem of  transportation  had  been  largely  a  personal 
one.  The  first  adventurers,  with  little  baggage  but 
the  rifle  and  the  ax,  able  to  live  on  parched  corn  and 
jerked  venison,  with  women  almost  as  hardy  as  men, 
neither  possessed  nor  cared  for  the  surplus  things 
of  life.     They  subsisted  on  what  nature  gave  them, 


66  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

seeking  but  little  to  add  to  the  prodnctiyeiiess  of  na- 
ture in  any  way. 

But  now  we  must,  presently,  conceive  of  our 
Western  man  as  already  shorn  of  a  trifle  of  his 
fringes.  His  dress  was  not  now  so  near  a  par- 
allel to  that  of  the  savage  whom  he  had  overcome. 
There  was  falling  into  his  mien  somewhat  more  of 
etaidness  and  sobriety.  This  man  had  so  used  the 
ax  that  he  had  a  farm,  and  on  this  farm  he  raised 
more  than  he  himself  could  use — first  step  in  the 
great  future  of  the  West  as  storehouse  for  the  world. 
This  extra  produce  could  certaioly  not  be  taken  back 
over  the  Alleghanies,  nor  could  it  be  traded  on  the 
spot  for  aught  else  than  merely  similar  commodities. 

Here,  then,  was  a  turning-poiat  in  Western  his- 
tory. There  is  no  need  to  assign  to  it  an  exact  date. 
We  have  the  pleasant  fashion  of  learning  history 
through  dates  of  battles  and  assassinations.  We 
might  do  better  in  some  cases  did  we  learn  the  time 
of  certain  great  and  significant  happenings. 

It  was  an  important  time  when  this  first  Western 
farmer,  somewhat  shorn  of  fringe,  sought  to  find 
market  for  his  crude  produce,  and  found  that  the 
pack-horse  would  not  serve  him  so  well  as  the  broad- 
homed  flat-boat  that  supplanted  his  oanoe.  The 
flat-boat  ran  altogether  down-stream.  Hence  it  led 
altogether  away  from  home  and  from  the  East.   The 


MISSISSIPPI,  INDEPENDENCE  67 

Western  man  was  relying  upon  himself,  cutting  loose 
from  traditions,  asking  help  of  no  man;  sacrificing, 
perhaps,  a  little  of  sentiment,  but  doing  so  out  of 
necessity,  and  only  because  of  the  one  great  fact  that 
the  waters  would  net  run  back  uphill,  would  not 
carry  him  back  to  the  East  that  was  once  his  home. 

So  the  homes  and  the  graves  in  the  West  grew,  and 
there  arose  a  civilization  distinct  and  different  from 
that  which  kept  hold  upon  the  sea  and  upon  the 
Old  World.  The  Westerner  had  forgotten  the  oys- 
ters and.  shad,  the  duck  and  terrapin  of  the  seaboard. 
He  still  lived  on  venison  and  com,  the  best  portable 
food  ever  known  for  hard  marching  and  hard  work. 
The  more  dainty  Easterners,  the  timid  ones,  the  stay- 
at-homes,  said  that  this  new  man  of  the  Western  ter- 
ritory was  a  creature  'Tialf  horse  and  half  alligator." 
It  were  perhaps  more  just  to  accord  to  liim  a  certain 
manhood,  either  then  or  now.  He  prevailed,  he  con- 
quered, he  survived,  and  therefore  he  was  right. 
There  grew  the  aristocrac}^  of  ability. 

The  government  at  Washington  saw  this  growing 
up  of  a  separate  kingdom,  and  sought  to  shorten 
the  arc  of  this  common  but  far-reaching  sky;  it 
sought  to  mitigate  the  swiftness  of  these  streams,  to 
soften  the  steepness  of  these  eternal  hills.  Witness 
Washington's  forgotten  canal  from  the  headwaters 
of  the  James   Eiver — a  canal  whose  beginning  or 


68  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

end  would  puzzle  the  average  American  of  to-day 
to  define  without  special  study.  Witness  many  other 
canal  and  turnpike  schemes,  feeble  efforts  at  the 
solution  of  the  one  imperishable  problem  of  a 
land  vast  in  its  geography. 

Prior  to  the  Louisiana  Purchase  no  man  could 
think  of  a  civilization  west  of  the  Mississippi;  but 
there  were  certain  weak  attempts  made  by  the  govern- 
ment to  bind  to  itself  that  part  of  the  new  lands 
that  lay  in  the  eastern  half  of  the  Mississippi  valley. 
The  ^^Ordinance  of  the  Northwest,"  done  by  the  hand 
of  Thomas  Jefferson  himself,  makes  interesting  read- 
ing to-day.  Tliis  ordinance  sought  to  establish  a 
number  of  states  in  the  great  valley  "as  soon  as  the 
lands  should  have  been  purchased  from  the  Indians." 

It  was  proposed  that  each  state  should  comprehend, 
from  north  to  south,  ^^two  degrees  of  latitude, 
beginning  to  count  from  the  completion  of  thirty- 
one  degrees  north  of  the  equator,  but  any  state  north- 
wardly of  the  forty-seventh  degree  shall  make  part  of 
that  state  next  below ;  and  eastwardly  and  westwardly 
they  shall  be  bounded,  those  on  the  Mississippi  by  that 
river  on  one  side,  and  the  meridian  of  the  lowest 
point  on  the  rapids  of  the  Ohio  on  the  other;  those 
adjoining  on  the  east  by  the  same  meridian  on  their 
western  side,  and  on  their  eastern  by  the  meridian 
of  the  western  cape   of  the  mouth   of  the   Great 


LIISSISSIPPI,  INDEPENDENCE  69 

Kanavv'ha;  and  the  territory  eastward  of  this  last 
meridian  between  the  Ohio,  Lake  Erie,  and  Penn- 
sylvania shall  be  one  state." 

The  Ordinance  even  went  so  far  as  to  propose 
names  for  these  future  states,  and  quaint  enough 
were  some  of  the  names  suggested  for  those  that 
are  now  Illinois,  Ohio,  Indiana^  Michigan. 
'^'^Sylvania,"  "Cherronesus,"  "Asenesipia,"  "Metix)- 
patamia,^'  ^Telesipia" — these  are  names  of  Western 
states  that  never  were  born,  and  in  this  there  is 
proof  enough  of  the  fact  that,  though  the  govern- 
ment at  Washington  had  its  eye  on  the  West,  it 
had  established  no  control  over  the  West,  and  under 
the  existing  nature  of  things  had  no  right  ever  to 
expect  such  control.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  gov- 
ernment never  did  catch  this  trua.nt  province  until 
the  latter,  in  its  own  good  time,  saw  fit  to  come 
back  home.  This  was  after  the  West  had  solved  its 
own  problems  of  commercial  intercourse. 

It  may  now  prove  of  interest  to  take  a  glance 
at  the  crude  geography  of  this  Western  land  at  tiiat 
time  when  it  first  began  to  produce  a  surplus,  and 
the  time  when  it  had  permanently  set  its  face  away 
from  the  land  east  of  the  Alleghanies.  The  census 
map  (see  Map  No.  1)  will  prove  of  the  best  service, 
and  its  little  blotches  of  color  will  tell  much  in  brief 
regarding  the  West  of  1800. 


70  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

For  forty  years  before  this  time  the  fur  trade  had 
had  its  depot  at  the  city  of  St.  Louis.  For  a  hundred 
years  there  had  been  a  settlement  on  the  Great  Lakes. 
For  nearly  a  hundred  years  the  town  of  ISTew  Orleans 
had  been  established.  Here  and  there,  between  these 
foci  of  adventurers,  there  were  odd,  seemingly  unac- 
countable little  dots  and  specks  of  population  scat- 
tered over  all  the  map,  product  of  that  first  uncertain 
hundred  years.  Ohio,  directly  west  of  the  original 
Pennsylvania  hotbed,  was  left  blank  for  a  Jong  time, 
and  indeed  received  her  first  population  from  the 
southward,  and  not  from  the  East,  though  the  New 
Englander,  Moses  Cleveland,  founded  the  town  of 
Cleveland  as  early  as  1796. 

Lower  down  in  the  great  valley  of  the  Mississippi 
was  a  curious,  illogical,  and  now  forgotten  little  band 
of  settlers  who  had  formed  what  was  known  as  the 
"Mississippi  Territory.''  Smaller  yet,  and  more  inex- 
plicable, did  we  not  know  the  story  of  the  old  water- 
trail  from  Green  Bay  to  the  Mississippi,  there  was  a 
dot,  a  smear,  a  tiny  speck  of  population  high  up  on 
the  east  bank  of  the  Mississippi,  where  the  Wisconsin 
emptied. 

These  valley  settlements  far  outnumbered  all  the 
population  of  the  state  of  Ohio,  which  had  lain 
directly  in  the  latitudinal  path  of  the  star.  The 
West  was  beginning  to  be  the  West.    The  seed  sown 


MISSISSIPPI,  INDEPENDENCE  71 

by  Marquette  the  Good,  by  Hennepin  the  Bad,  by 
La  Salle  the  Bold,  by  Tonty  the  Faithful,  seed  cul- 
tivated by  Boone  and  Kenton,  by  Sevier  and  Robert- 
son and  scores  and  hundreds  of  stalwart  early  Wes- 
terners— seed  desrpised  by  an  ancient  and  corrupt 
monarchy — had  now  begun  to  grow. 

Yet,  beyond  the  farthest  settlements  of  the  West  of 
that  day,  there  was  still  a  land  so  great  that  no  one 
tried  to  measure  it,  or  sought  to  include  it  in  the 
plans  of  family  or  nation.  It  was  all  a  matter  for 
the  future,  for  generations  much  later.  Compared 
with  the  movements  of  the  past,  it  must  be  cen- 
turies before  the  West — whatever  that  term  might 
mean — could  ever  be  overrun.  That  it  could  ever 
be  exhausted  was,  to  be  sure,  an  utterly  unthinkable 
thing. 

There  were  vague  stories  among  the  hardy  settlers 
about  new  lands  incredibly  distant,  mythically  rich 
in  interest  But  who  dreamed  the  import  of  the 
journey  of  strong-legged  Zebulon  Pike  into  the 
lands  of  the  Sioux,  and  who  believed  all  his  story 
of  a  march  from  Santa  Fe  to  Chihuahua,  and  thence 
back  to  the  Sabine?  What  enthusiasm  was  aroused 
for  the  peaceful  settler  of  the  Middle  West,  whose 
neighbor  was  fifty  miles  away,  by  that  ancient  saga, 
that  heroically  done,  Homerically  misspelled  story 
of  Lewis  and  Clark?     There  was  still  to  be  room 


72  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

enough  and  chance  enough  in  the  West  for  any  and 
all  men. 

The  progress  of  civilization,  accelerated  with  the 
passing  of  each  century,  was  none  the  less  slow  at 
this  epoch.  There  was  an  ictus  here  in  the  pilgrim- 
age of  humanity.  It  was  as  though  the  Fates  wished 
that  for  a  brief  time  the  world  might  see  the  spec- 
tacle of  a  land  of  help  and  hope,  of  personal  initiative 
and  personal  ambition.  The  slow-moving  star  of  the 
West  trembled  and  quivered  with  a  new  and  un- 
known light,  caught  from  these  noble  lakes  and 
rivers,  reflected  from  these  mountains  and  these 
skies. 

The  st-ars  of  a  new  heaven  looked  down  on  another 
king,  a  king  in  linsey-woolsey.  France  kicked 
him  forth  a  peasant,  and,  bom  again,  he  scorned 
the  petty  limitations  of  her  seigniories,  and  stood 
on  her  rejected  empire,  the  emperor  of  himself. 
England  rotted  him  in  her  mines  and  ditches,  but 
before  the  reversed  flags  of  England  were  borne 
home  from  her  war  which  did  not  subjugate,  this 
same  man,  under  another  sky,  was  offering  hospi- 
talit)',  and  not  obeisance,  to  her  belted  earU. 


OHAPTEE  VIL 

OEIGIN  OP  THE  PIONEER. 

'If  we  call  the  roll  of  American  scouts,  explorers, 
trappers,  Indian  fighters  of  the  Far  West;  of  men 
like  John  Colter,  Kobert  McClellan,  John  Day,  Jim 
Bridger,  Bill  Williams,  Joe  Meek,  Kit  Carson  and 
their  ilk,  who  trapped  and  fought  over  every  nook 
and  cranny  of  the  Far  West,  from  the  Canadian 
divide  to  the  ^starving  Gila,^  we  shall  find  that  most 
of  them  were  of  the  old  Shenandoah-Kentucky 
stock  that  made  the  first  devious  trail  from  Penn- 
sylvania along  and  across  the  Appalachians/' 

This  statement  of  a  well-advised  writer  is  curious 
and  interesting  to  any  student  of  the  real  West.  It 
applies,  also,  of  course,  and  much  more  closely,  to 
those  earlier  pioneers  that  explored  the  first  West, 
that  of  the  Mississippi  valley;  the  Boones,  Kentons, 
Harrods,  Finleys,  Brj^ans,  Stuarts  and  hundreds  of 
others  of  the  fighting  breed  of  Virginia  and  Forth 
Carolina,  the  families  of  nearly  all  of  whom  had 
made  one  or  more  pilgrimages  to  the  south  or  even 
to  the  southeastward  before  the  great  trek  westward 
over  the  Blue  Ridge  and  the  Alleghanies. 

73 


74  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

America  owes  much  of  her  national  character  and 
a  vast  part  of  her  national  territory  to  the  indiyidual 
initiative  of  these  bold  sonls,  who  waited  for  no  poli- 
cies, no  purchases,  no  leaderships,  but  pressed  on,  rifle 
and  ax  at  hand,  to  find  and  hold  our  West  for  us.  To- 
day we  forget  these  men.  The  names  of  the  captains 
of  enterprise  are  lost  in  the  tawdry  modern  lists  of 
our  so-called  captains  of  industry.  To-day,  in  a  time 
that  is  fast  becoming  one  of  American  serfdom, 
we  lose  in  the  haze  of  a  national  carelessness  the 
figures  of  that  earlier  and  more  glorious  day  when 
the  magnificent  American  West  offered  free  scope 
and  opportunity  to  a  population  wholly  made  up  of 
men  of  daring,  of  individuality,  of  initiative,  of  self- 
leadership. 

That  was  the  day  of  the  founding  of  the  Amer- 
ieaji  aristocracy,  of  the  birth  of  the  American  type, 
of  the  beginning  of  the  American  character.  If 
we  would  study  an  actual  American  histor}',  we 
can  not  leave  out  the  American  pioneer;  and  be- 
fore, in  our  humble  effort  to  approach  the  real 
genius  of  our  America,  we  follow  the  strong  sweep 
of  the  west-bound  beyond  the  mighty  Mississippi 
and  toward  the  western  sea,  we  shall  do  best  to  pause 
for  a  space  and  to  make  some  inquiry  into  the  origin 
and  character  of  these  early  apostles  of  the  creed 
of  adventure. 


ORIGIX  OF  THE  PIONEER  75 

If  we  ask  chapter  and  verse  in  the  study  of  the 
origin  of  this  American  frontiersman,  this  pioneer 
whose  ambition  was  an  indisputable  personal  inde- 
pendence, we  shall  not  find  the  details  of  his  an- 
cestry among  the  records  of  wealthy  and  aristocratic 
dwellers  of  the  seaboard  region.  The  bone  and 
bra^\Ti  of  the  early  frontier  did  not  come  from  the 
Cavaliers,  properly  so-called;  though  it  were  doing 
the  Cavaliers,  the  aristocrats,  an  iQJustice  to  say 
that  they  were  deaf  to  the  summons  of  adventure. 

The  man  that  dared  life  and  fortune  in  moving  to 
America  would  dare  life  and  fortune  west  of  the 
Alleghanies;  and  the  history  of  many  a  colony  and 
land  grant  in  the  early  West  is  proof  enough  of 
this.  The  Cavalier  or  aristocrat,  however,  was  not 
our  typical  axman  or  rifleman.  The  man  of  accom- 
plished fortune,  of  stable  social  connections,  dwelt 
farther  back  in  that  East  that  offered  the  most 
settled  society  of  the  American  continent  The  man 
in  linsey-woolsey,  the  woodsman,  the  rifleman,  was 
the  man  at  the  front,  and  it  is  in  regard  to  his 
origin  that  we  may  profitably  be  somewhat  curious. 
We  shaU,  therefore,  for  a  time  be  more  concerned 
with  the  mountains  of  Pennsylvania  than  with  the 
shores  of  Chesapeake  Bay  or  the  rich  valleys  of  Mary- 
land and  the  Old  Dominion. 

A  student  of  the  history  of  the  early  settlement 


76  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

of  Pennsylvania*  furnishes  data  regarding  the  two 
great  stems  of  the  pioneer  stock,  the  Quaker  and 
the  Scotch-Irish,  which  were  most  prominent  among 
the  many  nationalities  that  flocked  to  the  kindly 
kingdom  of  William  Penn,  where  each  man  wa^ 
treated  as  a  man,  ajid  where  independence  in  thought 
and  action  was  the  portion  each  claimed  as  his  own. 

^In  the  first  half  of  the  eighteenth  century,"  says 
this  writer,  ^^many  thousands  of  Scotch-Irish,  Ger- 
mans and  Welsh  landed  at  Philadelphia  and  New 
Castle,  and  a  large  majority  of  them  found  homes 
in  Pennsylvania.  A  number  of  the  former  turned 
to  the  westward  from  New  Castle  and  established 
themselves  in  Mar^'land  and  Virginia.  Among 
them  were  the  ancestors  of  Meriwether  Lewis,  whose 
grandfather  was  bom  in  Ulster,  Ireland;  and  a 
number  of  other  noted  pathfinders  of  the  West. 

^'^A  few  isolated  settlements  were  also  formed  in 
New  Jersey  and  Delaware,  but  as  before  stated,  the 
majority  of  them  found  homes  in  Pennsylvania.  They 
swarmed  up  the  valleys  of  the  Delaware,  Schuylkill 
and  Susquehanna  and  their  tributaries,  and  became 
at  once  the  vanguard  of  frontier  settlement;  and  they 
and  their  progeny  continued  to  merit  this  distinc- 
tion until  the  descendants  of  the  Atlantic  seaboard 


*Warren  S.   Ely,  of  Doylestown,   Pa. 


ORIGIN  OF  THE  PIONEER  77 

settlements  looked  down  from  the  sununit  of  the 
Rockies  on  the  Pacific  slope. 

"In  the  last  half  of  the  eighteenth  centnr}^  many 
hundreds  of  families  migrated  from  Pennsylvania 
southward  into  the  valleys  of  the  Shenandoah  and 
the  south  branch  of  the  Potomac^  whence  numbers 
of  them  continued  their  journey  into  North  and 
South  Carolina.  The  records  of  the  Society  of 
Priends  in  Bucks,  Lancaster  and  Chester  counties 
show  that  hundreds  of  certificates  of  removal  were 
granted  their  members  during  this  period,  to  remove 
to  Virginia  and  the  Carolinas;  and  many  of  these 
sturdy  Quakers  eventually  found  homes  west  of  the 
Alleghanies,  though  not  a  few  of  them,  like  Daniel 
Boone,  the  great  king  of  frontiersmen,  found  the 
exigencies  of  life  on  the  frontier  incompatible  with 
peace  principles,  one  of  the  cardinal  tenets  of  their 
faith,  and  drifted  out  of  the  Society. 

"During  the  same  period  hordes  of  people  of  other 
religious  denominations  removed  from  Pennsylvania 
over  the  same  route.  The  counties  of  Augusta  and 
Rockingham,  in  Virginia,  were  settled  almost  ex- 
clusively by  Pennsylvanians  from  Bucks  and  Berks 
and  the  Cumberland  valley,  many  of  whom  found 
homes  farther  west  or  left  their  bones  to  bleach  in  the 
eavage-tenanted  wilderness  of  the  frontier. 

^^oone  himself  was  a  native  of  Berks  County  ar;cl 


78  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

removed  in  1750,  when  a  lad  of  sixteen,  with  his  fam- 
ily and  a  host  of  others,  among  whom  were  the 
Hankses,  Hentone,  LincolnB  and  many  others  whose 
names  became  familiar  in  the  drama  of  the  West,  first 
to  Virginia  and  later  to  North  Carolina.  William 
Stewart,  a  companion  of  Boone  in  Kentucky  who 
was  killed  at  Blue  Licks,  in  1785,  was  a  native  of 
Bucks  County,  and,  it  is  claimed  by  relatives  of  both 
Boone  and  Stewart,  was  also  a  schoolmate  of  Boone's. 

"If  this  be  true,  it  must  have  been  in  Virginia,  as 
Boone  never  lived  in  Bucks  County,  though  his 
father  was  a  resident  of  New  Britain  township  prior 
to  the  birth  of  Daniel.  Soon  after  the  death  of 
Stewart,  his  sister,  Hannah  Harris,  of  Newtown, 
made  an  overland  trip  from  Newtown,  Bucks  County, 
to  Danville,  Kentucky,  to  look  after  the  estate  be- 
queathed by  Stewart  to  hi&  sisters,  Mary  Hunter 
and  Hannah  Harris  of  Bucks  County,  and  after  her 
return  made  a  report  of  the  cost  of  the  trip,  which 
is  on  record  at  Doylestown. 

"The  power  of  attorney  of  Mary  Hunter  to  Han- 
n^  Harris  to  proceed  to  ^aintuckee'  to  collect  her 
share  of  the  Estate  of  William  Stewart  is  dated 
May  seventh,  1787;  and  the  power  of  attorney  given 
by  Hannah  Harris  to  John  Dormer  Murray  to  trans- 
act her  business  in  Bucks  County,  dated  July  twenty- 
fifth,  1787,  states  that  she  is  'about  setting  out  for 


ORIGIN  OF  THE  PIONEER  79 

Kaintuckee^  and  therefore  fixes  approximately  the 
d-ate  of  the  beginning  of  her  journey. 

"Dr.  Hugh  Shiells,  of  Philadelphia,  who  had  mar- 
ried Ann,  the  daughter  of  Hannah  Harris,  May  thir- 
tieth, 1782,  preceded  her  to  Kentucky  and  took  up  his 
residence  near  Frankfort.  He  died  in  1785,  leaving 
an  infant  daughter  Kitty,  who  on  arriving  at  woman- 
hood married  Thomas  Bodley,  one  of  the  trustees 
of  Transylvania  University. 

"Archibald  Finley,  who,  we  believe,  was  the  emi- 
grant ancestor  of  the  John  Finley  who  led  an 
exploring  party  into  southern  Kentucky  from  North 
Carolina  in  1767,  died  in  New  Britain  township, 
Bucks  County,  in  March,  1749,  leaving  at  least 
three  sons,  Henry,  John  and  Alexander,  of  whom  the 
two  former  removed  to  Virginia  and  later  to  Ken- 
tucky. They  are  believed  to  have  been  members  of  a 
party  of  a  score  or  more  families  who  left  Bucks 
Comity  about  1760  and  journeyed  to  Loudoun  Coun- 
t}^  Virginia,  whence  a  number  of  them  removed  soon 
after  to  Orange  County,  North  Carolina.  Of  this 
party  were  Robert  Jamison  and  his  family  and  the 
Fergusons  of  Plumstead. 

^^illiam,  James  and  Morgan  Bryan,  brothers-in- 
law  of  Daniel  Boone,  who  accompanied  him  from 
North  Carolina  to  Kentucky,  were  also  natives  of 
Pennsylvania.    They  were  the  sons  of  Morgan  Bryran, 


80  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

who  came  from  Ireland  prior  to  1719,  at  which  date 
his  name  appears  on  the  tax  list  of  Birmingham 
township,  Chester  County,  as  a  ^single  man.'  He  mar- 
ried the  following  year  Martha  Strode,  and  in  the 
year  1734  with  fifteen  others  obtained  a  grant  of  a 
large  tract  of  land  on  the  Opeckon  and  Potomac 
rivers  near  Winchester,  Virginia,  and  removed  there- 
on. From  this  point  he  removed  with  his  family  to 
the  Yadkin,  where  Daniel  Boone  met  and  married  his 
daughter,  Eebecca,  in  1755. 

*^There  is  an  abundance  of  documentary  evidence 
in  Bucks  County  and  in  possession  of  her  sons  else- 
where, showing  that  many  of  the  pioneers  of  Ken- 
tucky were  natives  of  Bucks.  The  wills  of  many 
Bucks-countians  devise  estates  to  brothers,  sisters, 
sons  and  daughters,  ^now  or  late  of  Virginia,'  or  ^in 
the  county  called  Kaintuckee,  Province  of  Virginia.' 

"Eev.  J.  W.  Wallace,  of  Independence,  Missouri, 
has  in  his  possession  an  old  account  book  and  diary 
combined,  kept  by  his  great-grandfather,  John  Wal- 
lace, who  was  born  in  Warrington,  Bucks  County,  in 
1748,  and  who  served  with  distinction  as  a  lieutenant 
in  the  Continental  Army  during  the  Eevolutionary 
War,  some  of  the  entries  having  been  made  in  this 
book  while  the  owner  was  in  camp  with  Washington 
at  Valley  Forge  in  the  dark  winter  of  1777-8.  Lieu- 
tenant John  Wallace  married  into  the  Finley  family 


OKIGIN  OF  THE  PIONEER  81 

and  joining  them  in  Loudoun  County,  removed  with 
them  into  Kentucky  in  1788. 

^^This  remarkable  book  contains  the  record  of  the 
birth  of  John  Wallace  and  his  eight  brothers  and  sis- 
ters, several  of  whom  accompanied  him  to  Ken- 
tucky, as  well  as  an  account  of  the  journey  of  the  em- 
igrants from  Virginia  to  Kentucky,  which  was  made 
in  wagons  from  Loudoun  County  to  the  Ohio  River ; 
from  which  point  a  portion  of  the  party  went  in  boats 
down  the  Ohio  River  to  Limestone,  now  Maysville, 
then  overland  to  Frankfort,  while  the  remainder 
crossed  over  the  mountains  on  pack-horses.  They 
had  doubtless  been  preceded  by  their  relative,  John 
Finley,  of  North  Carolina. 

"A  similar  book  is  in  possession  of  W.  W.  Flack, 
of  Davenport,  Iowa,  the  great-great-grandson  of  the 
first  owner.  On  the  fly  leaf  is  endorsed  the  follow- 
ing: ^Receipt  Book  of  William  Flack,  May  20,  1789.' 
This  William  Flack  was  born  in  Buckingham 
township,  Bucks  County,  on  May  eleventh,  1746,  and 
died  at  Crab  Orchard,  Lincoln  County,  Kentucky,  in 
1824.  He  wa^  a  son  of  James  and  Ann  (Baxter) 
Flack,  Scotch-Irish  emigrants  who  came  to  Bucks 
County  about  1730  and  settled  near  Bushington. 
William  Flack  was  captain  of  the  Buckingham 
company  of  militia  during  the  Revolution,  and  is 
said  to  have  been  in  active  service  at  the  battle  of 


S2  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

Brandywine  and  at  other  points.  After  the  close  of: 
the  war,  accompanied  by  his  brother  Benjamin  and 
a  nephew  of  the  same  name,  he  removed  to  Kentuck}^, 
by  way  of  Virginia. 

"One  of  the  memoranda  in  the  old  book  is  as  fol- 
lows: benjamin  Flack  was  killed  by  the  Indians 
at  the  Mouth  of  Salt  lUver  the  1st  Day  of  March 
1786.'  William  Flack  married  Susannah  Callison 
in  Kentucky,  March  twenty-first,  1797,  and  the- 
^Eeceipt  Book'  records  that  event  and  the  births  of 
their  sdx  children,  two  of  whom  died  in  infancy.  On 
hearing  of  the  death  of  his  father,  which  occurred 
September  second,  1802,  Captain  Flack  started  for 
Bucks  County,  and  it  is  related  that  his  long  absence 
on  this  tedious  journey  led  his  family  to  believe  that 
he  had  been  captured  by  the  Indians. 

^*While  these  Pennsylvanians  were  wending  their 
way  southward,  tlieir  brethren  in  the  Cumberland 
and  Juniata  valleys,  augmented  by  recruits  from 
settlements  farther  east,  were  pushing  their  way 
westward  into  Fayettei,  Washington  and  Westmore- 
land counties,  whence  they  migrated  to  Kentucky 
and  the  Northwest  Territory."* 


•The  Pennsylvania  historian  might"  also  have  given  us  some 
word  of  that  Col.  George  Morgan,  some  of  whose  descendants 
reside  even  now  at  Morganza,  in  Pennsylvania.  Col.  George 
Morgan  had  passed  westward  over  the  Alleghanies  some  years 
in  advance  of  Daniel  Boone's  first  visit  to  Kentucky.  Mr. 
James  Morris  Morgan,  of  Washington,   D.   C,   in  correspondence 


ORIGIN  OF  THE  PIONEER  83 

As  to  that  war-like  breed,  the  Scotch-Irish,  famous 
in  American  frontiering,  the  same  historian  first 
-quoted  goes  on  in  detailed  description  from  which 
we  may  take  the  following : 

''History  ha^  touched  lightly  upon  the  home  life 
of  the  little  colony  of  Ulster  Scots,  who  settled  on 
the  banks  of  the  Neshaminy  in  tlie  townships  of 
Warwick,  Warrington  and  New  Britain,  in  Bucks 
Count}^,  Pa.;  but  these  people  were  none  the  less 
worthy  of  a  prominent  place  in  the  records  of  the 

has  this  to  say  in  regard  to  certain  early  voyagings  of  his  ances- 
tor, which  were  undertaken  while  the  Quakers  of  Pennsylvania 
were  still  quietly  dropping  down  from  the  hills  of  Pennsylvania 
icto  the  eastern  portions  of  Virginia  and  the  Carolinas: 

"Col.  George  Morgan  embarked  at  the  village  of  Kaskaskia, 
on  the  Kaskaskia  Paver,  for  his  voyage  down  the  Mississippi  on 
the  21st  of  November,  1766.  Butler,  in  his  history  of  Kentucky, 
gives  the  credit  of  being  the  first  American  citizen  to  descend  the 
Mississippi  to  Col.  Taylor,  in  1769.  Col.  Morgan  was  the  first 
American  citizen  to  found  a  colony  in  the  Territory  of  Louisiana. 
Under  a  grant  of  King  Carlos  IV,  he  built  the  city  of  New  Mad- 
rid, March,  1789.  The  grant  embraced  some  15,000,000  acres  of 
land.  (Gayarre;  'History  of  Louisiana.')  On  June  20,  1788,  Con- 
gress ordered  the  annulment  of  Col.  Morgan's  Indian  claim  to  a 
greater  portion  of  the  state  of  Illinois,  'claiming  the  land  bor- 
dering on  the  Mississippi,  from  the  mouth  of  the  Ohio  to  a  de- 
termined station  on  the  Mississippi  that  shall  be  sixty  or  eighty 
miles  north  from  the  mouth  of  the  Illinois  River,  and  extending 
from  the  Mississippi  as  far  eastward  as  may.'  The  treaty  meeting 
held  under  the  auspices  of  Sir  William  Johnson  at  Fort  Stanwix, 
■when  the  Indians  deeded  the  territory  of  Indiana  to  George  Mor- 
gan, his  father-in-law  John  Boynton,  and  his  partner  Samuel 
Wharton,  (Boynton,  Wharton  &  Morgan)  and  several  other 
minor  traders  whose  goods  had  been  despoiled,  was  held  on  No- 
vember 3,  1768.  The  state  of  Virginia  claimed  the  territory  after 
the  Revolutionary  War,  and  bullied  the  national  government 
Into  compliance  with  her  claims,  the  United  States  accepting  the 
property  as  a  present  from  Virginia,  immediately  after  decid- 
ing in  her  favor.     (See  Journal  of  Congress,  1784,  Feb.  26.)" 


84  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

past.  Driven  by  religious  persecution  from  their 
native  Highlands  in  the  seventeenth  century,  the 
remnants  of  many  a  noble  clan  sought  temporary 
refuge  in  the  province  of  Ulster,  Ireland,  whence, 
between  the  years  1720  and  1740,  thousands  of  them 
migrated  to  America,  and  peopled  the  hills  and  val- 
leys of  Pennsylvania's  frontier  with  a  sturdy,  rugged 
race  that  was  destined  to  play  an  important  part  in 
the  formation  of  our  national  character. 

"Clannish  by  nature  and  tradition,  they  clung 
together  in  small  communities  of  two  score  or  more 
families,  a  majority  of  them  related  by  ties  of  blood 
or  marriage.  They  took  up  the  unsettled  portions 
of  the  new  province.  Accustomed  for  generations  to 
the  rugged  mountain  sides  of  their  own  native  land, 
the  roughness  of  the  new  territory  did  not  discourage 
them.  In  fact,  the  steep  hillsides  on  the  banks  of 
our  rivers  and  smaller  streams,  shunned  or  neglected 
by  the  early  English  settlers,  seem  to  liave  had  an 
especial  attraction  for  them. 

"Possessed  of  a  character  as  stem  and  uncom- 
promising as  the  granite  of  their  native  mountains, 
this  little  colony  did  not  concern  itself  in  the  affairs 
of  its  neighbors.  Indeed  there  was  no  occasion  to 
do  so.  They  had  brought  with  them  the  things  they 
needed,  and  had  inherent  in  their  nature  that  which 
made  them  a  people  separate  and  apart  from  the 


ORIGIN  OF  THE  PIONEER  85 

communities  by  which  they  were  surrounded.  Ir 
their  lives  and  characters  was  a  declaration  of  inde- 
pendence that  in  itself  nourished  the  spirit  of  free- 
dom, which  was  to  carry  these  people  into  the  thick 
of  the  fight  when  the  time  arrived  to  bid  defiance  to 
the  mother  country. 

''This  spirit  was  further  augmented  by  their  inde- 
pendence and  resources  in  the  development  of  the  ma- 
terial affairs  of  the  colony.  As  previously  stated,  there 
were  among  the  first  settlers  men  of  every  trade  and 
calling  calculated  to  make  the  colony  self-sustaining. 
There  were  husbandmen,   weavers,   smiths,  masons, 
•joiners,  cord-wainers,  millers  and  tradesmen,  whose 
industry  and  thrift  made  it  possible  for  the  school- 
master and  preacher  to   devote  himself  exclusively 
to  the  intellectual  and  spiritual  needs  of  the  com- 
munity.   But  with  true  Scotch  economy,  the  .teacher 
and  preacher  were  often  one  and  the  same.     As  an 
illustration  may  be  cited  the  founding  of  Tennent's 
famous  Log  College  as  an  adjunct  to  the  Neshaminy 
Church,  of  which  he  was  pastor. 

"The  stimulus  given  to  civil  and  religious  freedom 
by  the  uninterrupted  exercise  of  these  liberties  in 
strong  contrast  to  the  repression  and  persecution  in 
the  old  country,  cannot  be  overestimated.  Princeton, 
as  well  as  like  institutions  elsewhere,  had  its  incep- 
tion in  our  own  Log  College;  and  Finley,  its  first 


86  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

president,  was  akin  to  those  of  the  same  name  in 
Warrington. 

"The  sons  of  Bucks  County's  sturdy  pioneers  were 
constantly  pushing  on  beyond  our  frontiers,  carry- 
ing with  them  the  lessons  of  frugality,  piety  and 
independence  learned  in  this  primitive  community. 
They  formed  new  colonies  and  engendered  therein 
the  love  of  freedom,  which,  when  the  Eevolutionary 
War  broke  out,  easily  made  the  Scotch-Irish  element 
the  dominant  party  in  the  struggle  for  national 
independence  in  our  state.  Independence  accom- 
plished, they  returned  to  their  homes  and  again 
took  up  the  business  of  self-government,  broadened 
and  refined  by  contact  with  the  outside  world,  the 
primitive  characteristics  of  their  early  life  gone, 
but  retaining  the  independence  and  courage  of  their 
forebears  which  had  developed  in  them  the  best  ele- 
ments of  citizenship.'' 


CHAPTER  VIII 

DANIEL  BOOITE 

In  preceding  chapters  we  have  taken  up  in  gen- 
eral and  in  particular  the  origin,  the  purpose  and 
the  progress  of  the  early  American  frontiersman. 
We  have  seen  how  this  man,  impelled  by  one  reason 
or  another,  began  to  push  outward  on  his  way 
over  the  Appalachian  range  into  the  valley  of  the 
Mississippi.  We  have  seen  that  the  course  of  west- 
bound civilization  was  at  first  not  wholly  along  the 
easiest  way,  but  over  barriers  that  had  apparently 
been  established  by  nature  as  insurmountable. 

From  headwater  to  headwater,  among  these  rugged 
hills,  from  one  valley  into  another,  ever  and  ever  west- 
ward, the  early  American  had  won  his  way,  until 
he  struck  the  waters  running  into  the  lower  Gulf 
by  way  of  that  great  highway  of  the  interior  floods, 
the  Mississippi  River.  We  have  seen  that  for  a  space 
the  early  population  did  not  head  directly  westward, 
but  dropped  down  from  Pennsylvania  into  Maryland 
and  Virginia,  and  from  Mar}dand  and  Virginia  into 
the  Carolinas. 

Many  of  the  early  adventurers  seem  to  have  made 
87 


88  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

their  halting  and  rall}dng  ground  in  North  Caro- 
lina. Here  were  some  of  the  men  of  Watauga, 
men  who  were  to  people  Tennessee,  men  who  were 
to  discover  and  settle  the  grand  state  of  Kentucky, 
that  steadfast  portion  of  our  Western  empire  whose 
fidelitY  was  to  thwart  all  of  those  early  efforts  at 
Western  sedition  and  secession  that  once  threatened 
the  unity  of  the  American  people. 

Having  thus  dealt  in.  generalizations,  we  shall 
perhaps  now  do  well  to  study  some  type,  some  prod- 
uct, of  this  early  civilization,  some  character  that 
shall  indicate  the  general  characteristics  of  the  land 
and  people  of  that  early  time.  In  this  desire  we  fall 
naturally  on  the  rom^antic  yet  pertinent  story  of  that 
typical  and  historical  frontiersman,  Daniel  Boone. 

x\mong  the  great  sayings  of  great  men  there  is  one 
that  rings  like  a  trumpet  voice  through  all  the 
press  of  years.  "Here  stand  I/'  said  Martin  Luther. 
■^THere  I  stand.  I  can  not  otherwise.  God  help  me !" 
If  we  should  come  to  comparisons,  we  might  perhaps 
icall  Daniel  Boone  the  Luther  of  frontiering,  the 
evangel  of  adventure,  the  prophet  of  early  west- 
bound daring.  Certainly  he  was  the  most  forward, 
the  most  present,  the  most  instant  man  of  his  place 
and  time. 

If  we  endeavor  to  see  Daniel  Boone,  the  man,  as 
he  actually  was,  we  find  ourselves  at  the  outset  deal- 


DANIEL  BOONE  89^ 

ing  with  a  character  already  approaching  the  myth- 
ical in  quality.  Thus,  in  regard  to  his  personality, 
certain  folk  imagine  him  as  tall,  thin,  angular,  un- 
couth. Others  will  portray  to  you  a  man  with  voice 
like  thunder  in  the  hills,  with  gore  ever  in  his  eye, 
in  his  voice  perpetually  the  hreathings  of  insatiate 
hate  and  rage.  They  will  insist  that  Boone  was 
bloody  minded,  overbearing,  a  man  delighting  in 
slaughters  and  riotings.  Such  pictures  are  utterly 
wrong;  so  much  we  may  discover  to  be  absolutely 
sure  from  the  scant  record  of  Boone^s  real  life. 

He  was  Quaker-bred,  as  we  have  seen.  A  sweeter 
soul  than  his  we  shall  not  find  though  we  search  all 
the  pages  of  history.  Meeting  every  species  of  dan- 
ger, he  remained  undaunted.  Meeting  every  manner 
of  adversity,  he  remained  unsoured.  With  every  rea- 
son for  conceit,  he  remained  unbitten  of  any  personal 
vanity.  To  the  end  of  his  life  it  was  his  belief  that 
he  was  *^*^an.  instrument  ordained  by  Providence  to 
settle  the  wilderness;"  yet  he  lost  no  time  in  posing 
himself  in  any  supposititious  sainthood.  Nor  must 
we  imagine  him  crude  or  ignorant  in  his  simplicity, 
for  those  who  knew  him  best  state  that  he  was  ^^a 
man  of  ambition,  shrewdness  and  energy,  as  well  as 
of  fine  social  qualities  and  an  extreme  sagacity." 

He  was  learned  in  the  knowledge  useful  at  his  time, 
although  of  books  he  wist  not  at  all.     Deeply  re- 


90  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

ligious  in  the  true  sense  of  religion,  a  worshiper  of 
the  Great  Maker  as  evidenced  in  His  works,  he  was 
not  a  church  member.  There  was  no  vaunting  in 
his  soul  of  his  own  righteousness;  yet  never  was  he 
irritable  even  in  old  age,  when  the  blood  grows  cold, 
and  the  thwarted  ambitions  come  trooping  home  to 
rooet  in  the  lives  of  most  of  us.  "God  gave  me  a 
WK>rk  to  perform,'*  said  he,  "and  I  have  done  my 
best."    With  this  feeling  he  lived  and  died  content. 

Regarding  the  Boone  of  early  years,  we  find  it 
difficult  to  frame  a  clear  picture,  but  there  is  more 
information  obtainable  regarding  his  later  life,  and 
we  can  see  him  then  clearly.  A  man  reaching  the 
ripe  age  of  eighty-six,  with  five  generations  of  his 
family  living  at  the  same  time ;  a  man  snowy  haired, 
yet  still  of  ruddy  complexion,  of  frame  still  unbent, 
with  kindly  and  gentle  personal  habits — this  is  the 
real  Daniel  Boone;  no  swearer  of  oaths,  no  swash- 
buckler, no  roisterer,  but  a  self-respecting,  fearless 
gentleman,  steadfast,  immovable  from  his  fixed  pur- 
pose, inalienable  from  the  mission,  which  he  con- 
ceived to  be  his  own. 

A  writer  who  knew  him  late  in  life  says  that  on 
his  introduction  to  Colonel  Boone  his  impressions 
were  those  of  "surprise,  admiration  and  delight." 
In  boyhood  he  had  read  of  Daniel  Boone,  the 
pioneer    of    Kentucky,    the    celebrated    hunter    and 


DANIEL  BOONE  91 

Indian  fighter,  and  in  imagination  he  portrayed 
a  "rough,  uneonth  looking  specimen  of  hu- 
manity, and,  of  course,  at  this  period  of  life, 
an  irritable  and  intractable  old  man.  But  in  every 
respect,*'  says  this  biographer,  "the  reverse  appeared. 
His  high  bold  forehead  was  slightly  bald,  and  his 
silver  locks  were  combed  smooth.  His  countenance 
was  ruddy  and  fair,  and  exhibited  the  simplicity  of 
a  child.  His  voice  was  soft  and  melodious,  and  a 
smile  frequently  played  over  his  face  in  conversation. 
His  clothing  was  of  the  plain,  coarse  manufacture  of 
the  family.  Everything  about  him  indicated  that 
kind  of  comfort  that  was  congenial  to  his  habits 
and  feelings,  and  he  evinced  a  happy  old  age.  Boone 
was  a  fair  specimen  of  the  better  class  of  Western 
pioneers,  honest  of  heart  and  liberal — in  short,  one 
of  nature's  noblemen.  He  abhorred  a  mean  action 
and  delighted  in  honesty  and  truth.  He  never  de- 
lighted in  the  shedding  of  human  blood,  even  that 
of  his  enemies  in  war.  His  remarkable  quality  was 
an  unwavering  and  invincible  fortitude." 

As  to  personal  description,  Boone  was  neither  a 
tall  nor  a  thin  man.  He  was  not  angular  nor  bony. 
His  frame  was  covered  not  with  cloying  fat  but  with 
firm  and  easily  playing  muscles,  and  he  carried  none 
of  the  useless  tissue  of  the  man  of  civilization. 
His  weight  was  "about  one  hundred  and  seventy- 


<>2  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

^ye  pounds."  Audubon,  who  met  him  late  in  his 
rife,  says:  ^^He  approached  the  gigantic  in  stature. 
His  chest  was  broad  and  prominent,  and  his 
muscular  powers  were  visible  in  ever}^  limb.  His 
countenance  gave  indication  of  his  great  courage, 
enterprise  and  perseverance." 

Yet  in  person  Boone  did  not  quite  reach  the  six- 
foot  mark,  but  was  just  below  five  feet  and  ten  inches 
in  stature,  some  say  five  feet  eight  inches,  being 
therefore  of  exactly  that  build  which  good 
judges  of  men  esteem  to  be  most  desirable  for  com- 
bined strength,  activity  and  endurance.  He  was 
rather  broad  shouldered :  that  is  to  sa}- ,  his  shoulders 
nicely  overhimg  his  hips.  All  agree  that  he  was  of 
"robust  and  powerful  proportions."  One  historian 
speaks  of  his  "piercing  hazel  eye";  yet  this  is  but 
romancing. 

Most  portraits  of  Daniel  Boone  are  the  products  of 
imagination.  The  most  authentic,  perhaps  the  only 
authentic  portrait  of  him,  is  that  painted  in  1820  by 
Chester  Harding,  "who,"  says  an  early  wiiter,  "of 
American  artists  is  the  one  most  celebrated  for 
his  likenesses."  When  Harding  made  his  portrait  of 
Boone,  the  latter  was  very  feeble,  and  had  to  be 
supported  during  the  sittings.  Tliis  portrait  shows 
a  face  thin  and  pale,  with  hair  of  snowy  whiteness 
and  eye  bright  blue,  mild  and  pleasant."    This  bluo 


DANIEL  BOONE  93 

eye  is  of  tlie  best  color  in  all  the  world  for  keenness  of 
vision,  for  quickness  and  accuracy  with  the  rifle.  The 
Harding  portrait  does  not  show  the  square  chin  that 
some  writers  give  to  Boone;  and  certainly  it  por- 
trays no  ferocious  looking  ruffian,  but  a  man  mild, 
gentle  and  contemplative,  "not  frivolous,  thoughtless 
or  agitated.*' 

As  to  Boone's  appearance  early  in  life,  we  must 
to  some  extent  join  the  others  who  imagine  or  pre- 
sume. It  is  fair  to  suppose  that  in  complexion  he 
was  florid,  with  the  clear  skin,  sometimes  marked 
with  freckles,  that  you  may  see  to-day  in  the  moun- 
tains of  the  Cumberland,  in  parts  of  Tennessee,  Ken- 
tucky, sometimes  in  Xorth  Carolina  and  Mississippi. 
The  color  of  his  hair  was  never  that  of  "raven 
blackness."  Perhaps  it  was  brown,  but  not  a  finely 
filamented  brown.  It  was  more  likely  blond,  and 
perhaps  indeed  carried  a  shade  of  red.  Certainly  the 
ends  of  his  hair  were  bleached  a  tawny  yellow,  that 
splendid  yellow  that  you  may  see  even  to-day  in  the 
hair  and  beard  and  mustaches  of  the  outdoor  men 
of  the  American  West. 

In  his  younger  days  he  often  wore  the  half  savage 
garb  of  the  early  American  hunters — the  buckskin 
or  linsey  hunting  shirt,  the  fringed  leggings  of  the 
same  material,  with  moccasins  made  of  the  skin  of 


94  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

the  deer  or  buffalo.  His  hat  was  as  chance  would 
have  it.     Perhaps  sometimes  he  wore  a  cap  of  fur. 

His  weaponry  we  may  know  exactly,  for  his  rifle 
can  be  seen  to-day,  preserved  by  his  descendants. 
It  is  the  typical  long-barreled,  crooked-stocked, 
small-bore  American  rifle,  with  the  wooden  stock 
or  fore  end  extending  along  the  full  length  of 
the  barrel.  There  are  a  few  rude  attempts  at 
ornamentation  on  this  liistoric  arm.  The  sights 
lie  close  to  the  barrel,  after  the  fashion  of  those 
deadly  ancient  weapons.  The  wood  is  rotting 
a  little  bit  where  the  oil  of  long-ago  cleaning 
operations  has  touched  it.  Perhaps  the  spring 
of  the  lock  is  a  trifle  weak.  Yet  we  may  not 
doubt  that,  were  Daniel  Boone  alive  to-day,  he  could 
teach  the  old  piece  to  voice  its  music  and  could  show 
again  its  ancient  deadly  art. 

In  chronology  Boone's  time  runs  back  to  that  of 
Washington.  He  was  born  November  second,  1734, 
the  date  of  Washington's  birth  being  1732.  His  older 
brother  was  called  Squire  Boone,  after  the  first  Amer- 
ican Boone,  who  was  himself  an  Englishman,  but  who 
came  to  America  early  in  the  history  of  the  lower 
colonies.  The  Boone  homestead  was  once  located  in 
Bucks  County,  Pennsylvania,  but  Daniel  was  bom 
after  his  parents  had   moved   into  Berks   County, 


DANIEL  BOONE  95 

Pennsylvania,  near  the  town  that  is  now  Eeading. 
Some  historians  say  he  was  bom  in  Bucks  County. 

In  his  youth  Daniel  did  not  seek  knowledge 
through  the  medium  of  books.*  His  mind  was  "not 
of  the  most  ardent  nature.''  Before  him  lay  the 
great  book  of  the  Wilderness.  Thus  he  became  well 
acquainted  with  the  habits  of  wild  game  animals, 
not  ascribing  to  these  creatures,  we  may  be  sure, 
any  of  those  fanciful  qualities  which  are  accorded 
them  in  the  silly  fashion  of  these  days,  but  knowing 
them  as  they  actually  were,  and  betimes  using  them, 
as  was  planned  in  the  scheme  of  nature. 

When  Boone  was  eighteen  years  of  age  his  family 
heard  many  stories  about  the  Yadkin  River  country 
of  North  Carolina.  Forthwith  they  moved  through 
the  Shenandoah  valley  into  what  was  then  a  yet 
wilder  country  than  that  of  Pennsylvania.  Here 
we  have  mythical  tales  of  a  fire  hunt  at  night  in 
which  Daniel  Boone  "shined  the  eyes''  of  a  certain 
maiden;  of  a  deadly  aim  miraculously  stayed,  and 
a  subsequent  marriage  unceremoniously  sped.  As 
to  the  fire  hunt  we  may  doubt,  but  as  to  the  mar- 
riage there  is  no  question.  Boone  married  Eebecca 
Bryan  in  1755.    Therefore  Daniel  must  move  once 


•There  was  long  known  a  tree  near  the  Cumberland  which 
bore  this  quaint  inscription:  "D.  Boon  Cilled  A  Bar  on  this  tree 
year  IWO." 


96  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

more,  this  time  farther  up  the  Yadkin,  where  the 
forests  were  yet  more  quiet,  and  neighbors  still  more 
distant. 

Previously  to  his  marriage  Boone  had  been  a 
liunter,— what  we  would  now  call  a  professional 
hunter.  He  sometimes  took  hides  and  furs  to  the 
more  distant  Eastern  settlements,  and  so  saw  some 
of  the  Virginia  towns.  He  was,  however,  not  merely 
a  half-savage  woods  wanderer,  although  a  past  master 
in  all  woodcraft.  The  year  before  his  marriage  he 
was  with  the  Pennsylvania  militia,  who  fought  the 
Indians  along  the  border  after  the  French  had  de- 
feated George  Washington  and  his  Virginians  at 
Great  Meadows.  In  the  fatal  Braddock  fight  Daniel 
Boone  was  a  wagoner  in  the  baggage  train,  and 
barely  escaped  with  his  life  in  the  panic  flight. 

At  twenty-one  he  was  a  man  grown,  matured,  ac- 
quainted with  all  the  duties  and  dangers  of  frontier 
life,  physically  fit  for  feats  of  strength,  activity  and 
endurance,  and  both  mentally  and  physically  a  per- 
fect machine  for  the  purposes  of  vanguard  work  in 
the  wilderness.  His  imagination  painted  him  no 
gloomy  picture  of  peril,  but  only  scenes  of  things 
delectable  a  little  farther  to  the  west,  across  the 
hills  that  faced  him.  His  emotions  did  not  prevent 
his  walking  forthwith  into  what  might  be  peril ;  and 
having  entered  perils,  he  was  content  if  each  day 


DANIEL  BOONE  97 

found  him  yet  alire,  nor  did  his  mind  entertain 
forebodings  as  to  the  morrow.  The  creed  of  the 
wilderness,  the  creed  of  wild  things  had  entered  into 
his  soul. 

They  call  Daniel  Boone  explorer,  hunter,  Indian 
fighter.  Let  us  figure  him  as  philosopher.  Temper- 
ament and  training  gave  footing  for  that  part  of  his 
philosophy  that  embodied  his  permanent  personal 
conviction  that  "God  had  appointed  him  as  an  in- 
strument for  the  settlement  of  the  wilderness." 

Boone,  after  his  marriage,  and  after  his  edging 
out  westward  toward  the  head  of  the  Yadkin,  lived 
much  as  he  had  done  before.  His  cabin  was  no 
better  than  his  neighbor's,  his  little  corn  farm  was 
much  as  theirs,  albeit  his  table  always  had  wild  meat 
enough  and  to  spare,  and  there  were  hides  and  furs 
in  abundance.  By  this  time  two  generations  of  vrliite 
men  had  held  this  slope  of  the  Appalachians.  The 
buffalo  had  in  all  likelihood  crossed  the  moun- 
tains to  the  westward,  though  one  writer  says  they 
were  "abundant"  on  the  Yadkin  at  this  time.  Boone 
may  perhaps  have  seen  an  elk  now  and  then  along  the 
Yadkin,  but  even  this  is  not  certain.  Bear,  deer, 
turkey,  small  furred  animals,  he  took  in  numbers. 
He  was  content,  nor  did  he  differ  much  from  his 
fellows.  He  must  have  been  about  thirty  years  of 
age  before  he  began  to  evince  traits  distinctly  dif- 


98  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

ferent  from  those  of  his  scattered  wilderness  neigh- 
bors; before  he  began  to  hear  the  Voices,  whispering 
yet  irresistible,  that  called  him  on;  those  Voices  of 
the  West,  which  for  a  hundred  years  called  our  best 
and  boldest  to  come  out  into  the  unknown  and  the 
alluring;  those  Voices  which  to-day  are  perforce 
stilled  forever. 

It  wafi  in  the  year  1769,  in  the  month  of  May, 
that  Boone  started  out  for  his  first  determined 
exploration  of  *^the  far-famed  but  little-known  land 
of  Kentucky."  He  had  before  this  time  been  eager 
to  cross  the  range  and  see  for  himself ;  indeed,  he  haxl 
made  one  short  hunting  trip  into  what  is  now  the 
eastern  edge  of  the  state  of  Kentucky.  Now,  in  the 
prime  of  life,  at  thirty-five  years  of  age,  he  felt  that 
the  time  had  come  for  him  to  cross  the  range  and 
make  his  abiding  place  in  the  West. 

We  are  accustomed  to  think  that  Boone  was  the 
first  explorer  of  Kentucky,  but  such  was  by  no  means 
the  case.  Boone's  first  trip  across  the  mountains,  to 
the  headwaters  of  the  Holston,  was  in  1761.  John 
Peter  Sailing,  a  West  Virginian,  crossed  Kentucky 
and  Illinois  as  early  as  1738.  Doctor  Thomas  Walker 
and  a  party  of  Virginians  had  long  before  deliberately 
explored  a  part  of  Kentucky;  and  in  1751  Boone's 
Yadkin  neighbor,  Christopher  Gist, — the  same  Gist 
that    accompanied    Washington    in    his    dangerous 


DANIEL  BOONE  99 

winter  trip  to  the  French  forte  on  the  Ohio, — ^made 
yet  fuller  explorations. 

Some  of  these  early  voyagings  were  not  made  of  in- 
tent. Sailing  crossed  Kentucky  as  a  captive  of  the 
Indians,  who  took  him  as  far  west  as  Kaskaskia ;  and 
Mary  Draper  Ingles,  '^the  first  American  bride  west 
of  the  mountains,''  whose  father  established  the  first 
actual  settlement  west  of  the  Alleghanies,  was  in 
1755  taken  captive  by  the  savages,  and  carried  across 
Kentucky  and  parts  of  Ohio  and  Indiana,  thus  being 
an  explorer  quite  against  her  will. 

Two  hunters  from  Pittsburg,  James  Harrod  and 
Michael  Steiner  or  Stoner,  after  pushing  out  into 
the  Illinois  country,  crossed  the  Ohio  and  traveled 
quite  across  Kentucky,  as  far  south  as  the  present 
city  of  Nashville,  Tennessee.  Steiner  and  Harrod 
were  friends  of  Boone's,  and  Harrod  built  his  stock- 
ade of  Harrodsburg  a  year  before  Boonesborough 
was  begun,  his  journey  with  Steiner  having  been 
made  two  years  before  Boone  made  his  pilgrimage 
across  the  Divide. 

Kasper  Mansker  or  Mansco,  later  a  famous  scout 
and  Indian  fighter,  went  with  the  Virginian  "Long 
Hunters"  into  Kentucky  in  1769.  John  Finley  or 
Finlay  had  traded  with  the  Indians  on  the  Red  River 
of  Kentucky  in  1752,  some  years  before  Boone  saw 
that  region.  Finley  was  an  associate  of  Boone's  in  the 


100  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

border  wars  before  Boone  was  married,  and  it  was 
Finley,  in  all  likelihood,  that  first  set  Boone  aflame 
with  the  desire  to  see  and  settle  in  Kentnckv.  Yet 
he  might  have  had  the  counsel  of  James  McBride, 
who  in  1754  visited  the  month  of  the  Kentucky  Eiver, 
and  came  back  to  say  that  he  ^Tiad  found  the  best 
tract  of  land  in  Xorth  America,  and  probably  in  the 
world.''  Finley  added  to  these  stories,  and  clinched 
it  all  by  saying  that  game  of  all  kinds  was  abundant, 
that  the  mountains  were  beautiful  beyond  descrip- 
tion, and  that,  moreover,  salt  could  be  manufactured 
on  the  spot. 

This  last  argument  had  ver\  much  to  do  with 
the  settlement  of  Kentucky.  Salt  and  lead 
were  essentials.  Salt  was  very  heavy.  The  transpor- 
tation acro&s  these  grim  mountains  was  very  difficult. 
If  one  could  have  salt  in  Kentucky,  it  would  not  be 
necessary  for  one  to  come  back.  To-day  we  can 
scarcely  understand  this  reasoning,  once  so  cogent. 

To  strengthen  the  grasp  upon  historical  facts  and 
dates  it  is  sometimes  well  to  begin  at  the  time 
close  at  hand,  and  go  backward.  We  may  there- 
fore make  a  reversed  recapitulation  of  the  explora- 
tions of  Kentuclcy,  this  dark  and  blocniy  hunting  and 
fighting  ground  of  many  tribes  of  strong-legged  and 
peppery-headed  savages. 

In  1770  the  '"Long  Hunters"  of  Joseph  Drake  and 


DANIEL  BOONE  101 

Henry  Skaggs  were  in  Kentucky -indeed,  ran  across 
Daniel  Boone  there ;  yet  Kentucky  was  then  an  oldish 
land.  In  1766  James  Smith  and  five  others  ex- 
plored much  of  west  Tennessee,  and  worked  north  as 
far  as  Illinois.  The  Virginian,  John  McCullough, 
with  one  white  companion,  saw  Kentucky  in  the  sum- 
mer of  1769,  pushed  on  northward  as  far  as  the  point 
where  Terre  Haute,  Indiana,  now  stands,  and  later 
descended  the  Mississippi  Eiver  to  New  Orleans. 
Uriah  Stone  took  a  party  of  twenty  hunters  over  the 
Cumberland  Gap  into  Kentucky  in  the  month  of 
June,  1769,  one  month  later  than  Boone's  journey 
thither;  but  Stone  had  been  in  Kentucky  in  1766. 

George  Washington  was  on  the  Ohio  River  in  1770 
and  1767;  John  Finley  in  1752;  Christopher  Gist  in 
1750;  Doctor  Thomas  Walker  in  1748;  John  Peter 
Sailing  and  John  Howard,  in  1742,  we  have  noted. 
Before  all  these  was  the  French  expedition  of  1735. 
Indeed,  just  one  hundred  years  before  Boone's  jour- 
ney into  Kentucky,  John  Lederer,  a  Virginian, 
crossed  the  Alleghanies  and  fared  westward  for  some 
distance;  and  ninety-nine  years  previous  to  Boone's 
first  glimpse  of  the  delectable  land,  Thomasi  Batts 
and  party  had  ^'^taken  possession"  of  the  headwaters 
of  the  Great  Kanawha  in  the  name  of  Charles  II. 

We  therefore  see,  with  what  will  be  a  certain 
surprise  to  the  average  reader  of  American  history, 


103  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

that  Kentucky  and  the  trans- Appalachian  land  was 
not  wholly  unknown  but  indeed  fairly  well  under- 
stood and  accurately  forecast  in  possibilities,  more 
than  a  generation  before  Daniel  Boone  ever  saw  it. 
Where,  then,  is  Boone^s  fame  as  an  explorer?  Upon 
what  does  his  reputation  as  an  adventurer  rest? 
What  claim  had  he  to  hold  himself  as  an  "instrument 
for  the  settlement  of  the  wilderness"  ? 

The  answer  to  all  these  doubts  is  read  in  the  rec- 
ord of  the  holding  of  Kentucky.  It  is  found  in  the 
inefficacy  of  a  "taking  possession''  by  means  of  the 
temporary  planting  of  a  flag  and  the  empty  claiming 
of  a  territory  extending  from  sea  to  sea.  The  flag  of 
Boonesborough  was  planted  never  to  come  down.  The 
stockade  of  the  homebuilders  was  defended  by  an 
"unwavering  fortitude."  Kentucky  discovered  Dan- 
iel Boone,  not  Daniel  Boone  discovered  Kentucky. 
Eead  it  in  this  way  and  all  shall  be  plain. 

The  birth  of  a  new  man  in  the  world,  the  Ameri- 
can, had  now  taken  place.     The  Old  World  explorers 
I  took  possession  with  a  flag,  furled  it  and  carried  it 
i  away  again.     The  new  man,  the  American,  flung  out 
/  a  flag  that  has  never  yet  come  down  in  all  the  world, 
and  which,  please  God !  never  shall  so  long  as  we  re- 
I  main  like  to  the  first  Americans.  John  Finley  guided 
Daniel  Boone  across  the  Cumberland  Gap;  but  he 


DANIEL  BOONE  103 

guided  him  into  a  land  now  ready  for  a  Daniel  Boone 
— into  a  West  now  ready  for  the  x\merican  man. 

It  was,  then,  in  the  month  of  May,  1769,  that 
Boone  left  the  Yadkin  settlements  and  started  west- 
ward. He  had  as  companions  John  Finley,  Joseph 
Ilolden,  James  Monay  or  Mooney,  William  Coole  or 
Cooley,  and  John  Stewart  or  Stuart.  Of  all  the 
different  expeditions  into  the  region  west  of  the 
'Appalachians  this  was  the  most  important.  Fol- 
lowing its  doings,  you  shall  see  the  long  spur  of 
the  Anglo-Saxon  civilization  thrusting  out  and  out 
into  the  West — to  the  Mississippi,  the  Missouri,  the 
Eockies,  the  Pacific — and  never  setting  backward 
foot. 

The  journey  over  the  mountains  was  not  rapid 
and  not  continuous,  it  being  necessary  for  the  party 
to  hunt  as  well  as  to  explore.  The  rifle,  the  ax,  the 
horse,  the  boat,  were  their  aids  and  agents,  their 
argument  and  answer  to  the  wilderness.  Evolution 
had  gone  on.    The  American  was  bom. 

Boone  and  his  friends  seem  to  have  camped  on  the 
east  side  of  the  Cumberland  Mountains,  where  they 
remained  for  "some  days.''  It  wag  from  this  camp 
that  they  made  expeditions,  and  at  length  climbed  to 
a  certain  ridge  whence  they  could  see  the  glorious 
realm  of  Kentucky.  On  this  day  they  saw  their  first 
herd  of  buffalo,  the  first  trail-makers  over  the  Ap- 


104  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

palachians,  of  which  they  killed  some  numbers.  They 
saw,  also,  elk,  deer  and  other  animals.  Boone  was 
delighted.  There  thrilled  in  his  heart  all  the  joy  of 
the  hunter  and  explorer.  Now  the  little  party  moved 
over  to  the  Red  River,  where  Einley  had  formerly 
been  located.  "Here,^'  said  Boone,  '^'both  man  and 
beast  may  grow  to  their  full  size."  That  was  good 
American  prophecy. 

For  six  months  this  adventurous  little  party  lived 
and  hunted  in  their  new  empire.  Then,  swiftly  and 
without  warning,  there  came  a  taste  of  some  of  the 
disadvantages  of  this  wild  residence.  Stewart  and 
Boone  were  taken  captive  by  the  Indians  and  were 
carried  to  the  north,  a  march  of  seven  days.  On  the 
seventh  night  they  made  their  escape  and  came  back 
to  their  bivouac  on  the  Red  River,  only  to  find  that 
their  friends  had  left  them  and  returned  to  the 
settlements.  As  offset  to  this  unpleasant  news  came 
their  present  discover}^  by  Squire  Boone  and  one 
companion,  Alexander  i^eeley,  who  had  followed  the 
adventurers  all  the  way  into  Kentucky.  Daniel's 
older  brother  had  brought  with  him  some  needful 
supplies,  chief  ocf  these  powder  and  lead,  worth  far 
more  than  gold  and  silver. 

"Soon  after  this  period,"  goes  on  the  simple  and 
businesslike  chronicle,  "John  Stewart  was  killed  by 
the  Indians."     Hence  the  two  Boone  brothers  were 


DANIEL  BOONE  105 

left  alone,  Squire  Boone's  companion  having  met  his 
fate  in  some  mysterious  manner,  perhaps  at  the  hands 
of  the  Indians,  tliough  others  state  that  he  was  de- 
voured hy  wolves, — a  very  unlikely  story.  The  two 
brothers  built  themselves  a  rude  cabin  of  poles  and 
bark,  and  there  they  spent  the  fall  and  summer  of 
1769.  In  May  of  tlie  following  year  Squire  Boone 
returned  to  North  Carolina.* 

It  is  now  that  for  the  first  time  we  may  accord 
justice  to  the  picture  that  shows  us  the  pioneer, 
Daniel  Boone,  alone  in  the  wilderness  of  Kentucky. 
He  was  at  this  time,  so  far  as  he  knew,  the  only 
white  man  in  that  entire  section  of  country.  Fear- 
less., adyenturous  and  self-reliant,  he  extended  his 
wanderings  farther  to  the  west,  and  visited  the  site 
of  what  is  now  the  city  of  Louisville.  His  life 
depended  entirely  upon  his  own  vigilance.  He  was 
without  bread  or  salt,  without  even  a  dog  to  keep 
him  company  or  serve  as  guard.     Naturally  he  met 

♦There  is  continual  discrepancy  among  the  historians  regarding 
these  incidents.  Thus  another  writer  states  that  Boone  and 
Stewart  were  twice  taken  prisoners  by  the  savages,  but  that  no 
northward  journey  was  made  by  the  Indians,  who  simply  kept  the 
prisoners  at  their  camps,  and  at  length  dismissed  them  with  a 
v/arning  to  leave  Kentucky,  as  it  was  their  own  hunting  ground 
and  belonged  to  the  Indians  only.  Again  there  seems  confusion 
in  the  stories  of  the  death  of  Neeley  and  Stewart.  One  account 
is  that  Boone  saw  Stewart  shot  down  and  scalped;  another  states 
that  Stewart  disappeared,  and  that  no  idea  of  his  fate  was  obtained 
«ntil  years  afterward,  when  in  a  hollow  tree  Boone  found  a  skele- 
ton, near  which  was  Stewart's  powder  horn,  which  had  his  name 
inscribed  upon  it. 


106  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

the  savages.  Once  when  pursued  by  the  Indians,  he 
escaped  by  the  clever  artifice  of  swinging  himself  far 
to  one  side  of  his  trail  by  means  of  a  depending 
grape-vine — a  stratagem  not  recorded  of  any  other 
Western  adventurer. 

He  seems  to  have  been  happy,  alone  in  a 
solitude  whose  nature  one  can  not  understand 
who  has  never  found  himself  under  conditions 
at  least  mildly  similar.  His  consolation  came  in  his 
communiQgs  with  the  wild  things  about  him,  in  his 
readings  in  the  great  book  of  nature.  His  gallery 
was  the  magnificent  one  of  wood  and  stream  and 
hill.  ^Tle  stood  upon  an  eminence,  whence,  looking 
about  in  astonishment,  he  beheld  the  ample  plain  and 
beauteous  upland,  and  saw  the  river  rolling  in  silent 
dignity.  The  chirp  of  the  birds  solaced  his  cares 
with  music.  The  numerous  deer  and  elk  which 
passed  him  gave  him  assurance  that  he  was  ia  the 
midst  of  plenty.  Cheerfulness  possessed  his  mind. 
He  was  a  second  Adam — ^if  the  figure  be  not  too 
strong — ^giving  names  to  springs  and  rivers  and 
places  all  unknown  to  civilized  man..^^  Such  was  the 
kingdom  of  the  West. 

Now  came  again  the  faithful  Squire  Boone,  all 
the  way  from  the  far-off  Yadkin.  These  two  dis- 
covered country  of  such  fertility  and  such  abun- 
dance in  game  that  they  no  longer  had  any  heart 


DANIEL  BOONE  107 

left  for  the  more  barren  region  of  North  Carolina. 
They  determined  to  bring  thither  their  families,  and 
the  fall  of  that  year  saw  them  both  back  at  the  old 
home,  making  plans  for  the  pilgrimage  into  the 
new  world  beyond  the  Alleghanies.  Restless  and  ill- 
content  we  may  suppose  Daniel  to  have  been,  for  it 
was  not  until  the  fall  of  1773  that  he  was  able  to 
sell  his  farm  and  get  together  his  effects. 

Five  families  left  the  Yadkin  with  him  for  Ken- 
tucky, these  being  joined  later  by  forty  men,  all  of 
whom  traveled  under  the  guidance  of  Boone.  They 
proceeded  westward  in  pastoral  cavalcade,  driving 
their  herds  and  carrying  their  effects  with  them.  So 
far,  very  well,  until  the  tenth  of  October,  when  came 
the  first  ambuscade  of  the  savage  Indians.  Six  men  of 
the  party  were  killed,  among  these  a  son  of  Daniel 
Boone.  The  cattle  were  scattered  or  destroyed.  No 
wonder  that  all  lost  heart  except  the  steadfast  leader. 
He  was  content  to  remain  with  the  retreating  party 
in  the  settlements  of  the  Clinch  River  only  until  June 
of  the  following  year. 

Now,  biding  his  time,  and  longing  for  greater 
adventures,  Boone  receives  a  message  from  the  gov- 
ernor of  Virginia.  It  seems  there  are  certain  sur- 
veyors who  have  gone  down  the  Ohio  River  and 
have  lost  themselves  in  the  wilderness.  Could  Daniel 
Boone  discover  these  surveyors   for  the  governor? 


108  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

Assuredly.  And  hence  lie  undertakes  his  first  real 
mission  of  independent  leadership.  He  has  but  one 
companion,  Michael  Stoner  or  Steiner,  and  before 
them  lie  many  hundred  miles  of  trackless  forest,  ^th 
no  road,  no  path,  no  trail.  Yet  the  surveyors  are 
found  and  led  safely  back  to  their  own. 

This  act  seems  to  inspire  confidence  in  Boone, 
and  Colonel  Henderson,  a  famous  land  speculator, 
employs  him  as  his  agent  for  the  purchase  from  the 
Southern  Indians  of  certain  lands  lying  south  of  the 
Kentucky  Eiver.  Boone  is  successful  in  these  nego- 
tiations. It  is  necessary  now  that  there  should  be  a 
road  established  between  these  outlying  lands  and  the 
door  of  civilization.  Who  better  than  Boone  to  estab- 
lish this  wilderness  trail  ?  He  lays  out  the  way  from 
the  Holston  to  the  Kentucky  Eiver.  We  are  told, 
without  unnecessary  flourish,  that  "in  this  work  four 
of  his  party  were  killed  and  five  woundeii.'' 

It  was  in  April,  1775,  that  Boone  erected  a  sta- 
tion or  palisade  on  the  Kentucky  Eiver  near  a  salt 
lick.  We  are  told  that  the  stockade  was  built  "sixty 
yards  from  the  south  bank  of  the  stream.'"  This 
was  close  to  the  present  site  of  the  town  of  Frank- 
fort, Kentucky.  Another  writer  says  the  date  of  the 
foundation  of  Boonesborough — as  the  station  was 
called — was  June  fourteenth,  1775.  Dates  are  un- 
important    The   fact   is   that   Boone   during   that 


DANIEL  BOOXE  109 

spring  attained  liis  immediate  and  most  cherished 
ambition.  He  established  his  home  in  the  heart  of 
this  beautiful  land  of  Kentucky. 

Thither    he    moved    his    family,    his    wife    and 
daughter    being   the    first    white    women    willingly 
and    of    intent   to    set   foot    on   the    soil   of   Ken- 
tucky.    Boone    was    now    in    the    heyday   of    life, 
strong,  fearless,  tireless,  a  keen  hunter,  a  cool-headed 
warrior.    The  ways  of  the  wilderness  were  known  to 
him.    The  imprint  on  the  moss,  the  discolored  water 
at  the  fountain,  the  broken  bough,  the  abraded  bark 
on  the  tree-trunk— all  these  things  were  an  open 
book.     No  Indian  could  imitate  the  chatter  of  the 
squirrel,  the  calling  of  the  crow,  the  gobbling  of  the 
wild  turkey  in  his  signals  to  his  fellow  savage,  so 
closely  that  the  acute  ear  of  this  master  hunter  did 
not  detect  the  deceit.    If  savages  crossed  the  country 
within  a  score  of  miles  of  his  station,  Boone  knew 
of  them,  knew  how  they  were  armed,  knew  what 
was  their  purpose  in  that  land.     None  could  have 
been  better  equipped  than  he  as  ''an  instrument  for 
the  settlement  of  the  wilderness.'' 

Life  went  on  in  Kentucky  much  as  on  the  Yadkin, 
on  the  Clinch  or  on  the  Holston.  White  men  began  to 
gather  in  at  the  station  of  Boonesborough,  or  at  one 
of  the  two  or  three  other  posts  that  now  were  estab- 
lished in  the  land.     These  white  men,  shoulder  to 


no  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

shoulder,  fought  the  savages  cheerfully,  continuously, 
never  for  a  moment  thinking  of  surrendering  their 
hold.  The  leader  of  this  wild  warfare  was  Daniel 
Boone,  the  man  of  "unwavering  fortitude." 

The  war  of  the  rebellion  against  the  Old  World 
was  now  going  on  apace.  Great  Britain  had  given 
the  red  savages  below  the  Great  Lakes  better  anns 
and  had  deliberately  incited  a  more  insatiate  enmity 
against  the  white  man.  Whereas  the  Indians  had 
at  first  adopted  prisoners  into  their  tribe,  they  now 
became  more  savage  smd  implacable,  in  many  more 
instances  killing  such  prisoners  as  fell  into  their 
hands. 

Here  we  find  ourselves  again  to  some  extent 
in  the  realms  of  imagination  as  to  the  adventures  of 
Daniel  Boone.  We  meet  the  ancient  anecdote  of  the 
capture  by  the  Indians  of  Boone's  daughter,  in  com- 
pany with  two  daughters  of  the  neighboring  Calla- 
way family.  Some  say  that  the  children  were  out 
hunting  up  the  cows,  others  that  they  were  in  a 
canoe  on  the  river,  and  that  the  canoe  was  taken 
away  by  a  savage  who  swam  out  and  made  them 
prisoners.  We  may  be  sure  that  Boone  and  Calloway 
raised  a  party  in  pursuit,  and  it  may  be  deemed  his- 
torical fact  that  they  rescued  their  daughters; 
though  some  state  that  the  rescue  was  effected  within 
a  few  miles  of  the  post,  whereas  others  place  it  after 


DANIEL  BOOXE  111 

a  long  Journey,  and  state  that  Boone  and  Calloway 
were  themselves  taken  prisoners  by  the  savages,  and 
in  turn  rescued  by  their  surviving  companions  only 
after  a  bitter  struggle.  One  may  suit  himself  in 
these  matters,  yet  he  must  believe  that  the  settle- 
ment of  Boonesborough  was  the  center  of  a  most 
savage  and  relentless  warfare. 

The  civilized  necessity  for  salt  was  one  of  the  chief 
causes  of  danger  for  these  Kentuckians.  In  1778 
Boone,  with  twenty-seven  companions,  was  engaged 
in  salt-making  at  the  Blue  Licks,  when  they  were 
surrounded  by  a  large  band  of  Indians.  Boone  was 
made  captive,  with  others,  and  taken  north  across 
the  Ohio  Eiver.  These  savages  were  Shawanese,  from 
the  Pickaway  Plain.  Eventually  they  took  Boone  as 
far  north  as  Detroit,  where  the  commandant,  Ham- 
ilton, pleased  with  Boone's  manly  character,  under- 
took to  ransom  him  from  the  savages.  The  latter, 
however,  would  not  hear  to  this,  and  after  some 
parleying  concluded  to  make  Boone  one  of  their 
tribe. 

He  lived  with  them,  for  some  months,  his  fate 
meantime  quite  unknown  to  his  friends  at  Boones- 
borough. At  length,  discovering  a  war  party  of  more 
than  four  hundred  savages  preparing  to  invade  the 
Kentucky  frontier,  he  escaped  from  his  captors, 
journeyed  two  hundred  miles  to  the  southward,  and 


112  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

saved  not  only  Boonesborough  but  all  tbe  infant  posts 
of  this  new  commonwealth  beyond  the  Alleghanies. 
This,  were  there  naught  else  to  commend  him, 
should  establish  Boone's  place  as  one  of  the  gre^it 
pillars  of  the  west-bound  civilization. 

After  the  savages  were  at  last  beaten  away  in  this 
attack,  Boone  found  that  he  was  a  man  not  without 
a  country,  but  without  a  family.  His  wife,  suppos- 
ing him  dead,  had  returned  to  the  old  home  on  the 
Yadkin.  There  is  a  wide  hiatus  here  in  the  Boone 
history,  regarding  which  Boone  himself  is  reticent. 

It  is  probable  that  at  this  time  there  began  those 
legal  difhculties  that  later  caused  the  pioneer  to  leave 
his  chosen  land.  He  had  been  given  a  grant  of  land 
by  the  governor  of  Virginia,  but  the  state  of  Kentucky 
had  never  been  surveyed,  and  it  was  the  fashion  and 
privilege  of  every  holder  of  one  of  these  loose  titles 
to  locate  his  land  as  he  pleased,  and  to  record  it  in 
the  simplest  and  most  primitive  fashion.  Thus  there 
came  to  be  many  claimants  for  the  best  of  the  lands, 
the  desirable  tracts  being  sometimes  deeply  covered 
by  these  old-time  "shingle  titles.'^ 

The  courts  swiftly  followed  into  these  crude  little 
Kentucky  communities.  It  may  have  been  the  legal 
complications  in  which  Boone  now  found  himself 
that  made  him  unwilling  to  speak  of  this  period  of 
his  career.     It  is  also  known  that  at  one  time  he  was 


DANIEL  BOONE  113 

custodian  of  some  twenty  thousand  dollars  of  money, 
which  he  intended  to  take  eastward  across  the  Alle- 
ghanies  for  the  purchase  of  lands.  He  was  robbed, 
and  hence  carried  to  his  grave  the  bitter  sense  that 
he  had,  through  no  fault  of  his  own,  been  unable  to 
carry  out  a  trust  that  had  been  imposed  on  him. 
Yet,  be  these  things  as  they  may,  the  fact  remains 
that  he  did  again  bring  his  family  to  his  chosen  set- 
tlement on  the  Kentucky  Eiver. 

Meantime  the  Northern  savages,  under  their  own 
leaders,  under  the  leadership  of  British  officers,  under 
the  leadership  of  the  dangerous  renegades,  Girty  and 
McKee,  came  down  time  and  again  on  the  Ken- 
tucky settlements.  The  salt  parties  must  go  out  as 
before,  and  in  one  of  these  excursions  Squire  Boone, 
Daniel's  beloved  older  brother,  fell  a  victim  to  the 
savages.  In  the  celebrated  and  ill-fated  McGary 
fight — the  blackest  battle  of  all  Kentucky — a  son 
of  Daniel  Boone's  fell  with  the  flower  of  the  frontier. 
Again  and  again  the  tribes  came  raging  down,  the 
Cherokees,  the  Pottawatamies,  the  Shawanese,  all 
Joining  hands  to  wipe  these  settlements  from  the  face 
of  the  earth.  In  the  fight  at  Bryanf  s  Station,  little 
as  it  was,  thirty  of  the  savages  were  left  on  the  field. 

The  year  1781  was  one  of  wrath  for  the  thin  firing 
line  on  the  western  side  of  the  Divide.  All  the  fights 
and  the  fighters  centered  about  or  came  from  the 


114  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

"'Dark  and  Bloody  Ground."  Clark,  Hardin,  Har- 
mar — all  these  started  from  Kentucky,  and  by  reason 
of  Kentucky.  It  was  General  Scott  with  one  thou- 
sand Kentuckians  that  avenged  the  horrible  defeat  of 
St.  Clair,  killed  two  hundred  of  the  yictorious 
savages,  and  took  back  from  them  their  booty.  In 
the  seven  years  from  1783  to  1790  there  were  fifteen 
hundred  whites  kiUed  or  taken  captive  in  the  state 
of  Kentucky.  In  all  these  affairs,  we  may  be  sure, 
Daniel  Boone  held  his  full  and  manly  part.  He  had 
drunk  the  wax-drink  of  the  savages  during  his  cap- 
tivity, and  the  spirit  of  the  savage  had  entered  into 
him. 

Yet  Boone  was  simple  and  unpretentious  as  any 
leader  that  ever  lived.  Once  Simon  Kenton,  him- 
self a  hardy  soul,  set  out  with  some  friends  on  a 
little  hunt  from  the  station  at  Boonesborough.  They 
were  fired  upon  by  Indians  from  ambush.  One  man 
was  shot  down  by  the  Indians  within  seventy  yards 
of  the  stockade.  His  murderer  would  have  scalped 
him  ha(i  not  Kenton  dropped  him,  a  corpse  beside 
a  corpse.  Then  it  was  general  melee  until  Daniel 
Boone  and  ten  others  came  out  from  the  stockade  to 
assist  their  fighting  comrades.  Kenton  killed  an- 
other Indian,  and  then  there  came  a  rush.  Boone 
directed  a  charge  upon  the  savages,  but  was  shot 


DANIEL  BOONE  115 

down,  a  ball  breaking  bis  leg.  Kenton,  brave  fellow 
that  he  was,  shot  down  Boone's  assailant  and.  carried 
Boone  safely  into  the  fort.  As  he  lay  on  the  couch 
receiving  attention  for  the  leg  broken  by  the  ball, 
Boone  sent  for  Kenton  and  said:  '^Vell,  Simon, 
you  have  behaved  like  a  man  to-day.  Indeed  you  are 
a  fine  fellow."  That  was  all  there  was  to  it.  They 
made  no  great  parade  in  those  days.  There  was 
no  proclamation  in  the  public  places.  There  were  no 
illustrated  newspapers,  no  gifted  war  correspondents 
to  describe  the  heroism  of  that  time.  A  similar  act 
to-day  would  have  made  both  participants  famous, 
would  perhaps  have  won  for  both  a  Victoria  Cross, 
and  would  have  afforded  imaginative  correspondents 
excellent  opportunity.  The  West  had  no  Victoria 
Crosses,  nor  needed  any. 

In  times  of  such  continual  excitement  and  danger 
it  is  small  wonder  that  there  has  been  but  scant 
record  kept  of  individual  deeds  of  daring.  Boone 
himself  was  not  wont  to  boast  of  his  own  prowess, 
and  regarding  his  deeds  of  arms  there  are  not  many 
authentic  anecdotes. 

One  of  the  best  known  of  his  adventures  was  that 
in  which  he  met  two  savages  in  the  forest  while  he 
himself  was  alone.  Those  were  flint-lock  days,  and 
Boone  was,  according  to  the  story,  able,  by  watch- 
ing the  flash  of  the  first  savage's  rifle,  to  throw  him- 


116  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

self  out  of  the  way  of  the  bullet.  This  manoeuver 
he  repeated  with  the  second  Indian.  Then  he  calmly 
shot  one  Indian  dead  with  his  rifle,  closed  with  the 
other,  received  a  blow  of  his  tomahawk  on  his  own 
rifle  barrel,  and  killed  the  savage  with  his  knife.  A 
statue  commemorating  this  feat  was  later  placed 
above  the  south  door  of  the  rotunda  in  the  Capitol 
at  Washington. 

There  was  need  in  Boone's  case  of  fortitude,  not 
only  of  the  physical  but  of  the  moral  sort.  In  1792 
Kentucky,  which  had  formerly  been  a  county  of  the 
state  of  Virginia,  was  set  up  as  a  state  by  itself, 
with  courts,  jails,  judges,  lawyers  and  all  the  ap- 
purtenances of  the  artificial  civilization  that  Boone 
had  hoped  to  leave  forever  behind  him. 

Then  came  lawsuits  regarding  the  lapping  titles. 
Daniel  Boone,  his  blue  eyes  troubled  and  bewildered, 
found  himself  among  the  haggling  officials  of  the 
law  courts.  It  broke  his  heart.  Stunned  but  not 
protesting,  he  gave  up  that  beautiful  land  he  had  en- 
abled all  these  others  to  find  and  to  hold.  He  was 
old  now,  and  had  fought  the  main  fight  of  his  life 
only  to  find  himself  the  loser. 

He  left  now  for  the  mouth  of  the  great  Kan- 
awha, but  found  the  hunting  poor.  A  son  of 
his  had  crossed  the  Mississippi  Eiver  and  sent 
back    word    that   there    was    still    a    West,    still    a 


DANIEL  BOONE  117 

country  where  were  buffalo  and  elk,  where  were 
otter  and  beaver  in  the  streams.  There  was  to 
be  one  more  pilgrimage  for  Daniel  Boone,  a  pil- 
grimage down  the  Ohio  Eiver,  ending  in  the  region, 
still  wilderness,  not  far  from  the  point  that  i? 
now  the  city  of  St.  Louis.  Bear  in  mind  that  this 
latter  point  was  not  within  the  United  States.  Dan- 
iel Boone  was  an  emigrant  from  the  land  he  had 
founded.  He  was  going  now  out  from  under  the 
infant  Stars  and  Stripes. 

In  token  of  his  character,  the  Spanish  governor  of 
Louisiana  gave  Boone  some  sort  of  trifling  com- 
mission. He  was  made  commandant  or  syndic,  an 
official  with  about  the  same  importance  as  a  country 
justice  of  the  peace  to-day.  By  the  terms  of  his  set- 
tlement in  that  country  Boone  was  entitled  to  a  tract 
of  something  like  ten  thousand  acres  of  land.  He 
was  wrongly  informed  that,  as  he  was  an  officer  of  the 
state,  he  need  not  settle  nor  improve  his  land.  Once 
more  a  fatal  mistake  for  the  man  who  knew  the  book 
of  nature  better  than  the  printed  page. 

Late  in  his  life  we  find  the  American  government, 
now  reaching  its  control  over  this  trans-Missouri 
country,  taking  up  the  question  of  Boone's  tract 
of  land  and  allowing  him,  with  extreme  gen- 
erosity, one-tenth  of  that  which  by  every  right  and 
title  of  justice  ought  to  have  been  his  own  in  fee 


118  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

simple  in  return  for  what  he  had  done  for  the  civil- 
ization of  America.  This  was  the  poor  pittance  that 
Daniel  Boone,  one  of  the  great  Americans,  was  able 
to  hand  down  to  his  posterity. 

With  this  poor  heritage  go  the  few  incidents  of  a 
meager  and  in  some  cases  uncertain  personal  history, 
the  main  facts  of  which  have  been  given  above. 
There  is  even  uncertainty,  or  rather  discrepancy,  re- 
garding the  date  of  his  death.  One  writer  states  that 
he  died  at  the  age  of  eighty-four,  in  the  year  1818. 
The  date  of  his  death  was  really  September  twenty- 
sixth,  1820,  he  being  at  that  time  eighty-six  years  of 
age. 

In  his  later  years  Boone  kept  up  those  practices 
that  had  endeared  themselves  to  him  in  his  earlier 
lifetimje.  In  a  mild  way  he  was  a  trapper,  and  always 
he  was  a  hunter.  Even  when  he  had  passed  his 
eightieth  year  he  went  regularly  each  fall  in  pur- 
suit of  the  deer,  the  turkey,  the  elk  or  the  furred 
animals,  or  followed  his  simple  pastime  of  squirrel 
hunting,  in  which  he  was  very  expert.  It  was  his 
custom  on  these  excursions  to  exact  a  promise  from 
his  attendant  that,  in  case  of  his  death,  his  body 
should  be  properly  cared  for.  He  long  kept  his 
coffin  under  his  bed  at  his  home,  near  Charettc, 
Missouri.  Once,  taken  sick  in  camp,  he  marked  out 
the  place  for  his  grave,  and  told  his  negro  servant 


DANIEL  BOONE  119 

(some  say  his  Indian  friend  or  servant)  wliat  should 
be  done  with  his  body. 

From  this  indisposition,  however,  he  recovered,  and 
went  on  several  other  hunts  later.  Failing  gradu- 
ally, though  not  from  any  specific  disease,  Boone  met 
the  great  and  final  enemy  with  the  same  fortitude 
that  had  been  with  him  all  his  life.  He  had  said 
farewell  to  all  earthly  ambitions,  and  was  ready  to 
die  when  the  time  might  come.  He  kept  the  cofl&n 
under  his  bed  not  in  any  bravado,  but  in  a  simple 
wish  for  complete  preparedness.  His  personal  hab- 
its remained  sweet  and  simple  as  of  old. 

Boone  seems  ix)  have  wandered  a  little  farther 
to  the  West  than  his  home  near  St.  Louis.  It  is 
said  that  he  "saw  the  mouth  of  the  Kansas  Eiver," 
and  that  he  noted,  with  the  impatient  longing  of 
an  old  man,  the  passing  up-stream,  into  the  mys- 
terious Northwest,  of  those  early  parties  of  fur 
traders,  the  voyagers  who  were  now  heading  the 
far  Western  American  migration.  It  was  now  too 
late  in  the  closing  years.  It  is  said  that  he  trapped 
on  the  Kaw  and  the  Osage,  and  he  is  said  to  have 
made  one  journey  "up  the  Missouri,  and  to  have 
reached  the  mouth  of  the  Yellowstone",  whence  he 
was  driven  back  by  savages. 

His  sons  and  grandsons  were  figures  in  Western 


130  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

history,  always  frontiersmen,  travelers.  A  grand- 
daughter became  the  wife  of  a  governor  of  Oregon. 
His  grandson.  Kit  Carson,  was  to  hold  fast  the  fam- 
ily traditions  on  many  a  Western  trail;  but  there 
were  to  be  no  more  trails  for  Daniel  Boone.  Over- 
taken once  more  by  America,  once  more  surrounded 
by  the  civilization  from  which  he  had  by  choice  al- 
ways alienated  himself,  he  at  length  lay  down  peace- 
fully to  his  final  sleep  beneath  the  trees. 

Some  twenty-five  years  after  his  death,  the  legis- 
lature of  Kentucky  awakened  to  a  sense  of  the  great- 
ness of  this  man,  and  to  the  onerous  nature  of  that 
debt  of  latitude  under  which  he  had  placed  his 
commonwealth.  By  virtue  of  a  special  enactment, 
the  bodies  of  Boone  and  his  faithful  wife  were  moved 
from  their  Missouri  home,  eastward  across  the  Mi^- 
issippi  Kiver,  and  laid  at  rest  in  the  cemetery  of 
Frankfort,  close  to  that  original  stockade  where,  sup- 
ported by  an  ^'^unwavering  fortitude",  there  first  flew 
the  hard  beset  flag  of  the  west-bound.  These  cof- 
fins came  garlanded  with  flowers,  heralded  with 
music,  surrounded  with  tardy  honors.  They  were  laid 
away  on  September  thirteenth,  1845.  There  were  effu- 
sive speeches  in  abundance,  the  chief  oration  being 
pronounced  by  Mr.  Crittenden,  "the  leading  orator 
of  his  time,"  as  he  is  called  in  the  chronicle.    Thus 


DANIEL  BOONE  121 

at  last  this  primeval  patriarch,  this  Father  of  the 
Frontier,  this  leader  of  ihe  Western  home-builders, 
came  home  to  sleep  on  the  soil  that  was  by  right  his 
own. 


CHAPTER  IX 

A   FRONTIER   REPUBLIC 

If  we  have  been  successful  in  the  first  of  our  un- 
dertakings, that  of  investigating  the  first  stage  of 
the  American  transcontinental  pilgrimage,  which 
brought  the  Anglo-Saxon  civilization  permanently 
into  the  Mississippi  valley,  we  must  have  gained  in 
our  earlier  chapters  sorae  knowledge  of  the  char- 
acteristics of  the  west-bound  men,  and  of  the  mo- 
tives that  actuated  them. 

We  shaU  also  have  noticed  the  beginning  of  a  new 
type  of  man, — a  man  bom  of  new  problems,  new 
necessities.  Obliged  to  think  and  act  for  him- 
self, it  was  natural  that  this  man  should 
learn  to  be  restive  when  others  thought  for 
him.  It  was  not  to  be  expected  that  the  men  of  New 
England  and  New  York  should  understand  this  new 
man.  We  do  not  understand  the  Asiatics  to-day; 
and  at  the  time  Daniel  Boone  reached  the  Miss- 
issippi it  was  farther  from  the  Mississippi  to  New 
York  than  it  is  from  New  York  to  the  PhiKppines 
to-day. 

The  American  pilgrimage,  whether  at  times  pain- 
122 


A  FKONTIEK  REPUBLIC  12a 

ful,  halting,  broken,  or  at  other  times  rapid,  fev- 
erish, insane,  has  at  the  one  time  or  the  other 
been  no  better  than  the  transportation  at  hand. 
The  long,  hard  roads,  the  slow  travel  of  those  early 
trans-Appalachian  days  were  at  the  bottom  of  the 
greatest  national  problem  of  those  days. 

The  men  of  the  East  could  not  believe  that  loyalty 
might  be  expected  of  the  men  of  the  West;  and  the 
latter,  feeling  the  force  of  their  geographical  position, 
and  feeling  also  their  own  ability  to  take  care  of 
themselves,  openly  talked  of  all  manner  of  schisms, 
sectionalisms  and  governmental  speculations.  The 
West  talked  secession  almost  before  it  was  a  West. 
Under  the  conditions  of  those  days  it  was  small  crime 
that  it  did  so ;  the  fact  proved  no  disloyalty  of  the  old 
type,  but  the  strength  and  vigor  of  the  new  type 
of  American  that  had  now  been  born,  which  declared 
itself  able  to  hold  and  govern  its  own  new-found 
world. 

It  may  profit  us  at  this  stage  of  our  study  to  turn  for 
a  time  from  the  individual  frontiersman  and  settler, 
and  to  take  up  in  more  concrete  form  some  of  the 
things  that  these  frontiersmen  and  settlers  did  in 
combination — some  of  the  phases  of  the  Western 
civilization  as  affected  by  the  ever  present  problems 
of  transportation. 

The   question  of  geography,   which  is  the   same 


124  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

as  to  say  the  question  of  transportation,  led  to 
more  than  one  attempt  to  set  up  entirely  in- 
dependent governments  west  of  the  Alleghany 
Divide,  just  as  it  also  much  affected  the  des- 
tinies of  the  unborn  states  of  the  Xorthwest 
Territory — Asenesipia,  Pelesipia,  Cherronesus,  and 
others.  Of  these  divers  attempts  at  secession,  some 
were  honestly  based  upon  a  wish  for  commercial  de- 
velopment that  did  not  seem  possible  in  connection 
with  a  government  situated  far  to  the  east,  at  the  end 
of  impassable  mountain  roads.  Other  attempts  were 
mere  personal  intrigues,  carried  on  with  a  view  to 
personal  advantage,  as  was  the  effort  of  the  unspeak- 
able Wilkinson  to  alienate  the  population  of  the 
Mississippi  valley  from  the  standards  of  the  gov- 
ernment at  Washington.  There  were  other  attempts, 
honest  attempts  at  secession,  or  more  properly  speak- 
ing, segregation,  on  the  part  of  considerable  com- 
munities whose  interests,  under  the  conditions  of 
the  time,  seemed  far  from  identical  with  those  of 
the  tidewater  population. 

Chief  among  the  records  of  these  movements  for 
an  honest  Western  secession  stands  the  story  of  the 
famous  Free  State  of  Franklin — the  story  of  an  en- 
terprise that  to-day  we  ignorantly  call  a  chimera,  an 
absurdity  or  worse,  though  to  the  men  concerned  in 
it  the  project  seemed  not  less  than  necessary,  just  and 


A  FEONTIER  REPUBLIC  125 

right.  The  historv^  of  this  state,  which  was  bom  of 
bad  roads  and  populated  by  a  new  breed  of  Ameri- 
cans, fits  nicely  with  our  theme  at  this  stage  of  its 
progress. 

As  to  the  extent  of  this  state  that  once  was,  but 
is  no  more,  we  discover  that  it  once  included  fifteen 
counties  of  Virginia,  six  of  West  Virginia,  one-third 
of  the  state  of  Kentucky,  one-half  of  Tennessee, 
two-thirds  of  Alabama  and  one-quarter  of  Georgia, 
as  those  states  exist  to-day.  Wherefore  it  may  seem 
that  John  Sevier  and  his  friends  were  dealing  with 
a  considerable  empire  of  their  own,  one  much  larger 
than  most  folk  of  to-day  realize  or  understand. 

It  was  one  of  those  first  republics  west  of  the  Alle- 
ghanies,  one  of  those  first  instances  of  spontaneous 
self-government  that  have  so  often  proved  the  vital 
strength  of  the  restless  yet  self-respecting  and  law- 
abiding  American  character.  How  the  men  of  the 
Free  State  of  Franklin  loved  their  little  empire,  how 
they  defended  it  against  the  savages  that  pressed 
upon  itsi  borders,  how  they  held  the  soil  on  which 
they  had  set  the  standard  of  west-bound  civilization 
' — all  that  is  a  legitimate  part  of  the  birth-history  of 
the  West. 

Tennessee  to-day  honors  John  Sevier,  founder  of 
the  Free  State  of  Franklin,  with  a  shaft  recording 
thirty-five   battles    and   thirty-five    victories.      This 


126  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

shaft  perpetuates  the  memory  of  a  population  that 
*^in  fifteen  years  engaged  in  three  revolutions,  or- 
ganized and  lived  under  five  different  governments, 
established  and  administered  the  first  independent 
government  in  America,  founded  the  first  .church  and 
the  first  college  in  the  West,  put  in  operation  the 
first  newspaper  west  of  the  Alleghanies,  met  and 
fought  the  soldiers  of  King  George  in  half  a  dozen 
battles  from  King's  Mountain  to  the  gates  of  Charles- 
ton, checked  and  beat  back  four  of  the  most  power- 
ful tribes  of  America,  and  left  to  Tennessee  the 
heritage  of  a  fame  founded  upon  courage  and  stead- 
fastness." 

In  the  times  just  preceding  and  following  the 
Kevolutionary  War,  the  American  colonies,  even 
though  bold  enough  to  encounter  successfully  the 
forces  of  the  mother  country,  were  none  the  less 
timid  and  lacking  in  self  confidence.  There  was 
no  strong  centralized  government,  nor  was  the  loy- 
alty of  the  different  colonies  or  the  different  men 
of  each  colony  a  thing  grounded  upon  reason  or 
even  an  imperative  self  interest. 

In  no  thing  was  America  so  rich  as  in  big  men,  by 
which  I  do  not  mean  ^^great"  men  as  the  term  com- 
monly goes.  The  characters  of  those  early  days  stand 
out  clearly  and  distinctly  before  us  now.  It  was 
still   the   day  of  individualism.      The   men   of  the 


A  FRONTIER  REPUBLIC  127 

Free  State  were  the  boldest  of  those  bold  indi- 
viduals who  headed  out  from  the  secure  settlements 
of  the  seaboard,  through  gloomy  forests,  into  the  un- 
known wildemees,  west  of  what  was  then  the  back- 
bone of  the  United  States,  the  rugged  Alleghany 
range. 

These  men  made  their  own  trails,  and  they  weie 
more  careful  with  the  trails  that  led  westward 
than  with  those  that  connected  them  with  the  Biaet 
that  they  had  left  behind.  It  was  no  act  of  dis- 
loyalty that  caused  souls  bold  as  these  to  cast 
about  them  in  matters  of  organization  and  of  govern- 
ment. The  day  of  kings  was  gone  for  them.  The 
day  of  Liberty  was  dawning.  They  carried  with 
them,  as  have  their  west-bound  fellows  ever  since, 
the  principles  of  self-governmeni  Where  the  com- 
munity was,  there  arose  the  Law,  there  began  the 
state. 

With  them  the  community  was  not  the  popula- 
tion they  had  left  far  behind,  but  that  population 
close  at  hand,  banded  together,  experiencing  a  com- 
mon danger,  and  entertaining  a  common  ambition, — 
the  population  that  had  come  West  and  intended  to 
remain.  The  branches  of  the  Law  no  longer  sheltered 
them.  They  were  alone.  There  was  no  Law.  What, 
then,  was  to  be  done  except  to  plant  anew  the  seeds 


128  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

of  the  Law,  and  let  it  blossom  here,  as  it  had  done 
before,  and  has  since,  on  the  soil  of  America  ? 

Yet,  poor  as  was  the  hold  that  these  people  now 
retained  upon  the  country  that  bore  them,  they 
were  not  lacking  in  active  loyalty.  When  they  heard 
of  the  first  battles  of  the  Revolution,  the  first  thought 
of  the  men  of  the  "Washington  District"  was  how 
they  might  best  prove  of  service  in  the  con- 
flict that  was  to  ensue.  So'  much  might  be  ex- 
pected, for  the  name  of  Washington  District  was 
given  by  rea-son  of  Sevier's  friendship  with  Wash- 
ington, later  to  be  the  first  president  of  the  States; 
and  the  District  had  sent  from  its  scanty  numbers 
fifty  riflemen,  under  Captain  Evan  Shelby,  who  took 
part  on  the  Indian  battlefield  of  Point  Pleasant, 
in  Virginia,  in  the  fall  of  1774. 

These  men  of  Washington  District  were  always  in 
the  front  when  the  fighting  began,  and  had  it  seemed 
practicable  to  their  leaders,  they  had  liked  nothing 
better  than  to  join  their  forces  always  with  those  of 
the  state  of  North  Carolina.  There  was  not  one 
coward  in  the  one  hundred  and  thirteen  men  that 
signed  Sevier's  petition  to  the  legislature  of  North 
Carolina.  Yet  no  formal  annexation  was  made  by 
North  Carolina,  though  John  Sevier,  Charles  Rob- 
ertson, John  Carter  and  John  Hall  were  seated  as 
delegates  in  the  North  Carolina  legislature. 


A  FRONTIER  REPUBLIC  129 

At  this  time  North  Carolina's  state  conBtitiition 
was  formed  (November,  1776),  fixing  the  western 
boundary  of  the  state  as  that  named  by  King 
Charles,  which  reached  to  "the  South  Seas."  No 
one  knew  what  so  indefinite  a  description  might 
mean,  but  John  Sevier  was  wise  enough  to  know 
that  so  far  from  getting  the  benefit  of  a  stable 
government  and  the  protection  of  the  laws,  his  com- 
panions west  of  the  Appalachians  would  be  in  a  land 
practically  without  law  save  of  their  own  making. 
Therefore,  having  in  view  all  the  time  this  pos- 
sibility of  a  breaking  away  of  a  considerable  body 
of  West-American  population  by  its  own  sheer 
weight,  he  succeeded  in  passing  a  resolution  in  the 
North  Carolina  legislature,  stating  that  the  above 
mentioned  limits  should  not  operate  as  a  bar  to  the 
'later  establishment  of  one  or  more  governments 
west  of  North  Carolina,  by  consent  of  the  legisla- 
ture of  that  state."  We  might  call  Sevier  another 
of  those  great  prophets  of  the  West,  a  prophet 
who  possessed  not  only  personal  courage  and  dar- 
ing of  his  own,  but  a  calm  and  sober  intellect  that 
foresaw  the  growing  up  in  the  West  of  not  only 
one  but  many  governments;  albeit  not  his  nor  any 
other  mind  might  at  that  time  see  those  changes  that 
were  to  unite  all  these  component  parts  into  one  effec- 
tive whole. 


130  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

There  may  be  interest  in  tracing  from  its  incep- 
tion the  growth  of  this  little  Western  republic.  We 
shaU  find  its  history  lovingly  written,  and  as  though 
to  hand,  by  an  inhabitant  of  the  state  of  Tennessee 
who  has  given  care  in  research  along  those  lines,* 
"This  lovely  mountain  section  of  the  old  Watauga 
settlements/'  writes  he,  'Toeing  the  cradle  of  Tennes- 
see and  in  some  respects  also,  of  the  vast  valley  of  the 
Mississippi,  is  rich  in  historical  interest.  Here  in 
the  month  of  May,  1772,  there  was  formulated  by 
Sevier,  Robertson  and  others  the  first  written  com- 
pact of  civil  government  on  American  soil.  It  was 
then  they  drew  up  the  celebrated  Watauga  Articles 
of  Association,  and  set  up  a  government  west  of  the 
long  line  of  the  Blue  Ridge  and  apart  from  colo- 
nial influence. 

^^These  articles  set  on  foot  all  the  machinery  of 
the  new  state,  the  future  Tennessee;  they  estab- 
lished courts  to  be  presided  over  by  five  com- 
missioners, who  had  entire  control  in  matters  af- 
fecting the  common  good;  they  provided  a  gov- 
ernment, paternal  but  simple  and  moderate,  albeit 
summary  and  firm.  This  form  of  government  proved 
satisfactory  and  sufficient  for  a  number  of  years, 
Sevier   and  Robertson   continuing   leading  spirits. 


•Alexander  Hynds,  of  Dandridge,  Twin. 


A  FRONTIER  REPUBLIC  131 

'At  this  time  they  probably  believed  themselves  to 
be  on  Virginia  territory,  for  there  was  great  ques- 
tion as  to  the  location  of  the  northern  boundary 
line  of  thirty-six  degrees  thirty  minutes,  thence  west 
to  the  South  Seas — ^the  vague  demarcations  of 
Charles  II  which  were  accepted  in  the  legislature  of 
North  Carolina. 

"It  was  in  1776  that  Sevier  drew  up  his  able  pe- 
tition to  North  Carolina  asking  to  be  annexed  there- 
to. Of  the  one  hundred  and  thirteen  signers,  all 
but  two  wrote  their  own.  names,  which  speaks  not 
so  badly  for  these  hardy  frontiersmen.  Their  re- 
quest was  granted,  and  about  April,  1777,  Watauga 
became  a  part  of  North  Carolina.  It  still  continued 
to  be  known  as  the  Washington  District,  largely  on 
account  of  geographical  situation.  At  that  time  it 
embraced  practicaily  all  of  the  present  Tennessee. 

"To  show  the  rapid  progress  of  civilization  in 
that  remote  region,  it  may  be  stated  that  in  1778 
or  1779  Reverend  Samuel  Doan,  a  young  graduate 
of  Princeton,  came  into  the  Watauga  country,  or- 
ganized Salem  Presbyterian  church,  and  in  1780 
erected  a  log  cabin  school-building,  the  first  literary 
institution  in  Tennessee,  if  not  the  first  one  in  the 
Mississippi  valley,  a^  has  been  frequently  asserted. 
In  the  year  1783  this  institution  was  chartered  by 


133  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

North  Carolina  as  Martin  Academy,  and  is  known 
now  as  Washington  College. 

"The  events  leading  to  the  formation  of  the  state 
of  FranMin  grew  out  of  the  effort  of  the  state  of 
Korth  Carolina  to  pay  her  share  of  the  thirty-eight 
millions  of  the  Eevolutionary  War  debt.  Congress 
[proposed  to  sell  all  the  vacant  lands  in  the  several 
states,  against  the  pro  rata  indebtedness  of  such 
states.  Therefore,  in  June,  1784,  the  (North  Car- 
olina) legislature  passed  an  act  giving  all  of  Wash- 
ington District  to  the  United  States.  This  gift  was 
conditioned  upon  an  acceptance  within  two  years, 
otherwise  the  act  was  to  be  null  and  void." 

This  transfer  of  the  sturdy  population  of  the  dis- 
trict brought  up  questions  somewhat  in  advance  of 
those  we  argue  to-day  regarding  government  with- 
out the  consent  of  the  governed,  and  the  transfer 
of  territory  without  the  consent  of  the  inhabitants. 
At  first  the  frontiersmen  seemed  not  to  object 
to  the  change,  but  reflection  showed  them  that  the 
act  failed  to  give  them  any  sort  of  civil  or  mili- 
tary government  during  the  two  years  Congress 
might  elect  to  employ  before  accepting  the  gift. 

This  contingency  justly  alarmed  the  population  of 
Washington  District.  They  found  themselves  in- 
habitants of  a  No-Man's-Land,  an  outlaw's  land, 
living  neither  under  a  government  of  their  own  es- 


A  FROXTIEK  REPUBLIC  133 

tablishing,  nor  any  other  whatsoever.  In  these  un- 
usual and  perplexing  circumstances  it  was  no  wonder 
that  the  people  of  the  District  called  a  convention. 
This  meeting  was  held  at  Jonesboro,  August,  1784, 
John  Sevier  himself  presiding.  Witness  now  the 
wisdom  of  his  proviso  in  the  session  of  the  ISTorth 
Carolina  legislature,  which,  in  short,  contemplated 
precisely  the  act  that  was  now  taken.  It  was  re- 
solved to  set  up  another  government,  and  these 
hardy  citizens,  so  capable  of  self-government,  greeted 
with  applause  the  establishment  of  a  free  and  in- 
dependent state.  The  convention  adjourned  to  meet 
again  in  November,  to  ratify  the  constitution  and 
further  to  complete  the  organization  of  the  state 
government. 

"Meantime,"  continues  our  historian,  "North  Car- 
olina, becoming  alarmed  at  the  state  of  affairs,  re- 
pealed the  act  of  cession  of  Washington  District, 
gave  to  the  secessionists  a  superior  court  of  their 
own,  and  made  Sevier  brigadier-general  of  the  or- 
ganized militia.  All  of  this  was  most  probably  mis- 
understood by  the  people,  who  proceeded  to  elect 
delegates  to  another  convention,  over  which  Sevier 
presided,  though  he  steadily  protested  against  a  sep- 
aration. A  constitution  was,  however,  adopted,  an 
election  for  representatives  was  ordered,  and  when 


134  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

that  body  metv,  Sevier  was  elected  governor  and  all 
the  machinery  of  the  new  state  set  in  motion." 

This  little  Western  republic  certainly  seemed,  to 
have  trouble  in  finding  itself.  Its  very  name  is  even 
to-day  a  matter  of  discussion.  One  writer*  says: 
"The  Washington  District  declared  itself  independ- 
ent, and  organized  a  government  under  the  name  of 
Fraukland.  The  name  was  afterward  changed  to 
Franklin."  The  writer  just  quotedf  states :  "There 
was  considerable  discussion  as  to  the  spelling  of  the 
name,  many  insisting  in  convention  that  'Frank- 
land/  that  is  to  say  'Freeland/  should  be  the  name. 
Others  were  for  following  the  name  of  Benjamin 
Franklin.  The  latter  spelling  carried  by  a  very 
small  majority  in  the  convention,  as  cited  by  Ram- 
sey. There  is,  however,  yet  extant  one  letter  written 
by  General  William  Cocke  from  Frankland." 

The  name  Franklin  was  the  one  officially  accepted. 
Franklin  himself  did  not  know  of  the  honor  he  had 
received  until  some  eighteen  months  after  it  had 
been  conferred.  He  declined  to  be  caught  by  this 
compliment,  did  not  commit  himself  in  favor  of  the 
new  commonwealth,  but  advised  the  citizens  of  this 
pseudo-state  to  submit  their  claims  to  Congress, 
and  indeed  outlined  to  them  the  virtue  of  that  cen- 


•N.  p.  Langford. 
tAlexander  Hynds. 


A  FRONTIER  REPUBLIC  135 

tralized  government  which  was  later  to  be  felt  on 
both  sides  of  the  Alleghanies. 

This  new  population  now  had  a  government  and 
a  scheme  of  education,  and  indeed  a  general  plan 
of  living  ajid  growth  and  progress,  yet  it  lacked 
many  of  the  advantages  of  an  older  civilization. 
There  must,  of  course,  be  revenue,  and  hence  taxes; 
and  since  a  currency  was  not  forthcoming,  the  leg- 
islature passed  an  act  authorizing  the  payment  of 
taxes  and  salaries  in  articles  of  trade.  Legal  tender 
were  beaver,  otter  and  deer  skins,  each  at  six  shil- 
lings; raccoon  and  fox  skins,  worth  one  shilling 
and  three  pence  each.  Beeswax,  at  one  shilling  a 
pound,  was  also  legal  tender;  and, most  remarkable 
of  all,  though  there  were  those  who  wondered  not 
at  the  precedent,  it  was  provided  that  taxes  and 
official  salaries  might  also  be  paid  in  rye  whisky, 
at  three  shillings  six  pence  a  gallon,  or  in  peach 
brandy  at  three  shillings  a  gallon!  As  to  the  ex- 
tent of  the  reward  of  practical  politics  in  that  day, 
we  may  cite  an  act  passed  by  that  same  legislature. 

"Be  it  enacted  by  the  General  Assembly  of  the 
State  of  Eranklin,  and  it  is  hereby  enacted  by  the 
authority  of  same,  that  from  and  after  the  first  day 
of  January  next,  the  salaries  of  this  commonwealth 
shall  be  as  follows: 


136  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

'^is  Excellenc}',  the  Governor,  per  annum,  a  him- 
dred  deer  skins. 

*TIis  Honor,  the  Chief  Justice,  five  hundred  deer 
skins. 

''The  Secretary  to  His  Excellency,  the  Governor, 
five  hundred  raccoon  skins. 

''County  Clerk,  three  hundred  beaver  skins. 

"Clerk  of  the  House  of  Commons,  two  hundred 
raccoon  skins. 

"Members  of  the  Assembly,  per  diem,  three  rac- 
coon skins. 

"Justice  fees  for  serving  a  warrant,  one  mink  skin.^^ 

Crude  enough  seem  such  devices  to  us  to-day, 
yet  we  must  remember  that  we  are  in  close  chron- 
ological touch  with  those  very  times.  Nor  did  the 
new  state  seem  to  do  ill  with  its  self-established 
machinery  of  government.  Just  as  the  people  of 
America  retained  something  of  the  vital  and  useful 
customs  and  standards  of  old  England,  discarding 
the  ancient  and  outworn,  so  did  the  people  of  the 
state  of  Franklin  cling  to  the  standards  of  their 
mother  state  of  Xorth  Carolina.  The  constitution 
of  North  Carolina  was  adopted  without  very  great 
change. 

"For  some  time,**  goes  on  our  writer,  "the  state 
of  Franklin  moved  on  serenely,  until  Governor  Se- 
vier officially   notified   Governor   Martin  of  North 


A  FRONTIER  REPUBLIC  137 

Carolina  that  his  people  would  no  longer  recognize 
the  authority  of  that  state.  Governor  Martin  re- 
plied explaining  the  cession  act,  and  threatening  the 
'revolters'  with  armed  invasion  unless  they  returned 
to  their  allegiance.  This  letter,  largely  circulated, 
was  not  without  effect,  though  in  the  main  the  peo- 
ple adhered  to  the  new  state. 

^'North  Carolina  then  passed  an  act  of  amnesty 
for  those  that  cared  to  avail  themselves  of  it,  which 
provided  for  the  election  of  members  to  her  own  leg- 
islature. The  same  act  appointed  civil  and  military 
officers  for  the  district.  Thus  there  was  to  be  seen 
the  strange  spectacle  of  two  sets  of  officers  over  one 
and  the  same  set  of  people,  ^Hurrah  for  FrankKn!' 
being  the  battle  cry  of  one,  and  ^Hurrah  for  North 
Carolina !'  the  watchword  of  the  other.  Great  con- 
fusion followed.  Franklin  held  courts  at  Jonesboro, 
and  North  Carolina  held  hers  near  by,  each  denying 
the  authority  of  the  other.  The  rival  officials  quar- 
reled and  fought  over  their  supposed  rights.  The 
victors  turned  the  vanquished  neck  and  crop  out  of 
doors,  and  retained  possession  of  the  records,  such  as 
they  were. 

"Failing  to  obtain  recognition  from  North  Car- 
olina and  an  admission  of  the  independence  of  the 
state  of  Franklin,  Sevier  laid  the  matter  before  Con- 
gress.    Here  he  failed.    He  turned  to  Georgia,  and 


138  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

was  told  by  that  state  that  Franklin  and  the  old 
state  of  North  Carolina  must  settle  their  own  af- 
fairs themselves.  Bay  by  day  the  Franklin  party 
became  weaker,  and  on  the  expiration  of  Sevier's 
term  as  governor  no  election  was  held,  and  the 
state  of  Franklin  therefore  ceased  to  exist.  Indeed 
it  is  a  matter  of  surprise  that  it  survived  four  years 
of  such  constant  and  irritating  opposition.  The  ex- 
planation lies  in  the  fact  that  no  other  man  in 
Tennessee  before  or  since  has  had  so  firm  a  hold  upon 
the  popular  heart  as  did  John  Sevier.  In  one  in- 
stance at  least  the  fickle  multitude  was  constant. 

"Soon  after  Franklin's  downfall,  Sevier  was  ar- 
rested by  North  Carolina  officers  on  the  charge  of 
treason,  the  warrant  having  been  granted  by  Judge 
Spencer  of  the  old  state,  and  he  was  taken  over 
the  mountains  for  trial  at  Morganton.  There  he 
was  at  once  surrounded  by  many  of  his  old  King's 
Mountain  comrades,  and  after  a  short  sojourn  re- 
turned home  without  trial  and  without  interference. 
He  was  soon  elected  to  the  North  Carolina  senate, 
where  he  took  his  seat,  that  section  of  the  legisla- 
ture restoring  to  him  all  his  old-time  privileges. 
Almost  immediately  thereafter  he  was  elected  to 
Congress  (in  1789)  from  the  Washington  District 
of  North  Carolina,'  thus  becoming  the  first  member 
of  that  body  from  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi." 


A  FRONTIER  REPUBLIC  139 

All  this  turmoil  as  to  the  bestowal  of  govern- 
mental allegiance  was  going  forward  at  the  same 
time  that  the  settlers  of  Kentucky  were  raising  their 
com  under  rifle  guard,  and  constantly  fighting  back 
the  savage  population  that  hemmed  them  in.  They 
too  were  clamoring  for  national  support,  or  individ- 
ual independence.  Meantime,  too,  the  intrigues  of  Wil- 
kinson in  the  Mississippi  valley  were  continuing,  and 
the  men  of  the  Free  State  of  Franklin  even  looked 
southward  for  an  alliance  with  the  nation  holding 
control  of  the  mouth  of  the  great  Mississippi  high- 
way. 

The  formation  of  the  new  state  was  a  blow 
not  so  much  at  the  government  at  Washington  as 
at  the  mother  state  of  North  Carolina ;  and  the  lat- 
ter was  at  first  willing  enough  to  have  the  separa- 
tion take  place,  for  she  was  tired  of  paying  war 
debts  for  fighting  the  Indians  on  her  far-off  frontier. 

The  times  being  so  far  out  of  joint,  we  can  scarcely 
wonder  that  the  hardy  Indian  fighters  under  Sevier 
at  one  time  (September  twelfth,  1788)  sent  word  to 
the  Spanish  minister  Gardoquoi  that  they  wished  to 
put  themselves  under  the  protection  of  Spain — a 
thing  to-day  difficult  to  believe  of  any  part  of  the 
American  population,  yet  not  wholly  irrational  for 
those  times  and  conditions.  Nor  is  this  all  of  the 
story  of  these  little  splits  and  schisms  and  secessions, 


140  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

which  for  a  time  took  place  on  the  Western  slo-pe 
of  the  Alleghanies. 

Another  writer*  describes  some  of  these  early 
transactions,  'The  settlers  of  the  district  of  the 
Columbia  River/^  says  he,  'Vho  were  under  the 
Jurisdiction  of  North  Carolina,  gave  the  name 
of  Miro  to  the  district  they  had  formed;  this 
as  evidence  of  their  partiality  for  the  Spanish 
government.  The  promise  of  protection  the  inhabit- 
ants received  from  Gardoquoi  was  so  modified  by 
Miro  £hat  the  scheme,  though  prosecuted  for  a  time 
with  vigor,  finally  failed  from  inability  of  the 
secessionists  to  comply  with  the  conditions  of  recog- 
nition. Yet  another  center  of  sedition  was  lo- 
cated in  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi.  A  com- 
pany composed  of  Alexander  Moultrie,  Isaac  Huger, 
Major  William  Snipes,  Colonel  Washington  and 
other  distinguished  South  Carolinians  was  formed 
at  Charleston  in  1789,  which  purchased  from  the 
state  of  Georgia  fiftj'-two  thousand  nine  hundred 
square  miles  of  territory,  extending  from  the  Yazoo 
to  the  banks  of  the  Mississippi  near  Natchez,  the 
Choctaws,  Chicasaws  and  Spain  each  claiming  a  por- 
tion of  this  territory.  The  ulterior  designs  of  the 
company  in  the  purchase  and  settlement  of  the  coun- 
try were  carefully  concealed  for  some  time.'^ 


♦N.   P.   Langford. 


A  FRONTIER  REPUBLIC  141 

The  arch  conspirator  Wilkinson  did  his  best  to 
assume  a  position  of  importance  with  this  little  body 
of  malcontents,  and  freely  promised  Miro  that 
he  would  unite  all  this  population  under  the  flag  of 
Spain.  He  naively  stirred  up  the  Indian  savages 
of  the  Mississippi  valley  to  renew  their  attacks  on 
the  Western  frontier,  in  order  that  the  Western 
settlers  might  the  more  quickly  realize  the  ineffi- 
ciency of  the  government  at  Washington  to  afford 
them  the  protection  they  needed.  Meantime  also 
it  was  quite  possible  that  Great  Britain  might  make 
an  invasion  of  Louisiana,  by  way  of  the  water  trail 
from  Canada  to  the  Mississippi  valley.  Assuredly  the 
times  were  ti'oublous,  and  fortunate  indeed  was  it 
that  the  government  at  Washington  still  lived,  that 
good  fortune  favored  the  minds  and  hands  in  control. 

It  was  not  the  wisdom  of  the  government,  not 
the  ability  of  the  political  leaders  that  solved  these 
perplexing  problems.  Presently  they  went  far  toward 
solving  themselves,  as  do  most  American  problems 
to-day.  By  this  time  all  the  mountain  roads  and 
water  trails  were  becoming  more  defined  and  more 
frequented;  the  fighting  white  men  were  slowly 
beating  off  their  savage  foes. 

Then  at  last  came  the  time  when  the  frontier,  held 
fast  by  many  braided  trails,  looked  back  across  the 
mountains,  and  resolved  to  pin  fast  its  allegiance 


142  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

then  and  forever  to  the  government  that  had  heen 
left  behind,  the  government  of  Americans  nnder 
principles  established  and  fully  proved  on  the  Ameri- 
can soil.  The  threads  that  bonnd  fast  the  new  settle- 
ments with  the  old,  the  threads  that  grew  and 
strengthened  iato  indissoluble  bonds,  which  in  spite 
of  the  fears  of  those  who  dreaded  the  accession  of 
any  more  large  territory,  held  firm  the  whole  wide 
realm  of  the  West  to  the  mother  colonies  on  the  East^ 
were  simply  the  natural  and  artificial  trails,  later  to 
be  blended  into  a  vast  network,  intermingling  and 
inextricable,  weaving  and  making  permanent  the  web 
of  a  common  and  unsectionalized  civilization. 

Such  was  the  still  pure  Anglo-Saxon  civilization, 
changed,  purified  and  strengthened  by  some  gener- 
ations of  tenure  of  the  American  soil,  at  the  time 
when  it  reached  the  great  central  highway,  the 
mighty  Mississippi,  there  to  pause  for  a  time,  facing- 
new  ^oblems  attendant  upon  the  next  great  journey 
onward  and  outward  in  the  pathway  of  the  sun. 


THE  WAY  TO  THE  ROCKIES 

CHAPTER  I 

DAVY   CROCKETT 

There  is  no  figure  of  speech  that  so  exactly 
describes  the  westward  advance  of  the  American 
population  as  that  which  compares  it  to  the  feeding 
of  a  vast  flock  of  wild  pigeons.  These,  when  they 
fall  on  a  forest  rich  with  their  chosen  food,  ad- 
vance rapidly,  rank  after  rank.  As  those  in  the 
front  pause  for  a  moment  to  feed,  others  behind 
rise  and  fly  on  beyond  them,  settling  for  a  time  to 
resume  their  own  feeding  operations.  Thus  the 
progress  of  the  hosts  resembles  a  series  of  rolling 
waves,  one  passing  ever  on  beyond  the  other,  each 
wave  changing  its  own  relative  position  rapidly,  yet 
ever  going  forward. 

It  was  so  with  the  American  people.  The  Alle- 
ghanies  could  not  stop  them  in  their  west-bound 
march,  nor  the  terrors  of  a  relentless  Indian  war- 
fare, which  endangered  lives  dearer  to  the  rugged 

frontiersman   than    his    own.     Nothing   would   do 
143 


144  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

iiiitil  the  pathway  of  the  waters  had  hrought  the 
American  settler  to  the  Mississippi  River,  tlie  great 
highway  that,  whether  hy  whim,  chance,  or  design, 
had  now  become  wholly  the  property  of  the  growing 
American  government.  Having  arrived  at  the 
Mississippi  River,  the  population  could  not  rest. 
Those  behind  pressed  ever  on. 

Once  across  the  Alleghanies  the  pathways  had  been 
pointed  out  by  nature;  beyond  the  Mississippi  these 
pathways  were  reversed.  Man  had  not  wings  like 
the  wild  bird.  His  pilgrimage  must  still  be  slow, 
his  methods  of  locomotion  clumsy.  The  paths  no 
longer  lay  even  with  the  currents  of  the  streams.  The 
adventurer  into  the  West  must,  for  the  most  part, 
follow  the  reversed  pathways  of  the  waters.  Briefly, 
the  journey  of  the  frontiersman  from  Pennsylvania 
to  the  Mississippi  was  one  of  angles,  the  first  leg  run- 
ning to  the  southwest,  thence  northwest,  thence  south- 
west. The  pilgrimage  profile  from  the  Mississippi  to 
the  Rockies  was  equally  angular.  The  line  of  travel 
did  not,  for  the  most  part,  run  directly  to  the  west. 
It  angled  out  and  upward,  wherever  water  trans- 
portation led,  and  where  the  streams  showed  the 
way. 

In  the  story  of  Daniel  Boone  we  have  seen  how 
he  moved  again  and  again,  seeking  ever  to  edge  a 
little  farther  to  the  west  than  his  nearest  neighbors. 


DxWY  CROCKETT  145 

Still  another  great  frontiersman,  Davy  Crockett, 
beloved  of  the  American  people,  gives  us  instance  of 
this  patient  progress  of  the  west-bound,  halting, 
advancing,  but  never  tiring.  The  life  of  Crockett 
will  afford  in  itself  a  good  view  of  the  profile  of 
the  population  movement,  and  will  give  as  well  a 
notion  of  the  life  and  customs  of  those  early  times. 

Davy  Crockett,  backwoodsman  and  bear  hunter, 
magistrate,  legisdator  and  congressman;  a  man  who  j 
at  the  time  of  his  marriage  scarcely  knew  one  letter 
of  the  alphabet  from  the  other,  yet  at  middle  age 
was  one  of  the  best-known  figures  of  tlie  American 
political  world,  and  who  was  even  mentioned  as  a 
possibility  for  the  presidency  of  the  United  States; 
a  man  that  lived  like  a  savage  and  died  like  a  hero — 
one  of  the  uncouthest  gentlemen  tliat  ever  breathed — 
such  a  man  as  this  could  have  been  the  product  of 
none  but  an  extraordinary  day.  We  shall  do  well  to 
note  the  storv^  of  his  life,  for  his  is  one  of  those 
colossal  figures  now  rapidly  passing  into  the  haze  of 
forgetfulness  or  the  mirage  of  mere  conjecture. 

In  some  fashion  the  names  of  Boone  and  Crockett 
are  often  loosely  connected.  They  were  in  part 
contemporaneous  though  not  coincident.  Showing 
in  common  the  rugged  traits  of  the  typical  man  of 
their  tim'e,  they  were  yet  distinctly  unlike  in  many 
qualities.     A  writer  who  knew  ]x>th  men  states  that 


146  -THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

he  considered  Crockett  the  mental  superior  of 
Boone.  After  weighing  carefully  all  the  evidence 
ohtainahle — and  there  is  much  more  information 
available  concerning  Crockett  than  in  regard  to 
Boone — one  would  be  disposed  to  differ  from  such 
an  opinion. 

Boone  was  the  simpler  and  sincerer  soul,  the 
graver  and  more  dignified  figure;  Crockett  the  more 
magnetic  personality,  the  more  plausible,  if  at  times 
less  candid,  man.  One  man  was  practically  as 
ignorant  as  the  other.  Boone  had  no  taste  for 
political  life,  and  his  sole  wish  was  to  live  ever 
a  little  beyond  that  civilization  of  which  he  was 
the  pioneer  and  guide.  Crockett,  built  also  of 
good,  common,  human  clay,  for  two-thirds  of  his 
life  seemed  animated  by  no  greater  ambition. 

Then  all  at  once  we  see  him  turned  politician.  He 
succeeds,  and  his  name  grows  larger  than  his  neigh- 
borhood and  country.  Not  knowing  the  basis  of  the 
tariff,  ignorant  of  the  text  of  the  Constitution, 
master  of  the  practice,  but  unable  to  explain  the 
theory,  of  a  caucus  or  a  town  meeting,  he  finds 
himself  owner  of  a  seat  in  the  United  States  Congress, 
fairly  the  central  figure  of  that  Congress,  the 
cynosure  not  only  of  the  South  but  of  the  East 
and  North. 

He  is  at  this  time  nothing  but    a    great,  good- 


DAVY  CROCKETT  147 

humored  boy,  the  very  type  alike  of  an  open- 
handed  generosity,  and  an  open-mouthed  and  some- 
times ill-timed  levity.  He  is  the  product  of  political 
accident.  Yet,  wonder  of  wonders,  we  find  this  man, 
quite  past  the  time  usually  assigned  as  the  limit 
for  the  development  and  fixing  of  a  man's  character, 
suddenly  blossoming  out  into  a  second  development, 
a  second  manhood,  more  thoughtful  and  more  dig- 
nified than  that  of  his  early  days.  Without  educa- 
tion when  he  started  for  the  halls  of  Congress,  he 
gains  that  education  more  rapidly  than  did  ever 
man  before. 

Crockett  returned  to  his  home  a  graver  and  broader 
man.  Even  his  speech  had  gained  freedom,  ease 
and  clarity,  though  still  he  delighted,  perhaps  more 
in  jest  than  otherwise,  to  bring  in  the  crudities  of 
expression,  the  quips  and  quirks  of  that  language 
through  which  he  had,  to  his  own  surprise  and 
without  his  own  plan,  won  his  sudden  notoriety— a 
notoriety  that  was  later  to  turn  to  fame. 

There  is  not  to  be  found  in  all  the  history  of 
Am-erican  statesmanship  so  swift  and  sound  a  ripen- 
ing into  mature  thought  as  that  of  this  backwoods- 
man, the  first  political  "mugwump"  or  independent; 
who  engaged  in  politics  for  reasons  of  self-interest, 
and  then  all  at  once  grew  big  enough  to  set  seK- 
interest  aside-  and  to  do  what  seemed  to  him  wise 


148  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

and  riglit — a  type  of  statesmanship  now  well-nigh 
defunct  in  America.  And  yet  we  see  him,  in  the 
pang  of  his  first  decisive  political  defeat,  growing 
hitter  at  his  reverses,  losing  the  genial  philosophy 
of  his  earlier  years,  even  renouncing  his  country, 
and  forthwith  turning  away  from  family,  friends 
and  commonwealth  to  seek  a  new  fortune  in  an 
alien  land. 

Some  biographers  of  Crockett  accord  to  him  in 
this  act  the  motives  of  Md  knight-errantry;  yet 
impartial  review  of  known  facts  leads  one  to  be- 
lieve that  Crockett's  abandonment  of  his  family 
and  his  somewhat  eri'atic  journey  into  Texas  were 
most  easily  explicable  by  reasons  of  a  plausible  self- 
interest.  He  was  seeking  political  advancement 
along  lines  of  less  resistance.  Then,  finding  himself 
a  member  of  a  party  of  souls  as  adventurous  as 
himself,  souls  reckless  and  unrestrained,  ardent, 
eager,  fearless,  yet  without  a  leader  and  without  a 
definite  plan,  Crockett  the  backwoodsman,  Crockett 
the  thinker,  the  orator,  the  statesman,  if  you  please, 
flings  himself  with  the  others  into  a  needless  and 
fatal  fight,  rages  with  them  in  the  most  glorious 
struggle  yet  chronicled  in  the  pages  of  American 
history,  fights  like  a  Titan,  dies  like  a  gallant 
gentleman,  helps  write  the  shining  history  of  that 
squalid  hut  in  old  San  Antonio,  and  makes  possible 


DAVY  CROCKETT  149 

one  of  the  most  burning  sentences  that  ever  adorned 
monument  above  hero's  grave:  "ThermopyUe  had 
three  messengers  of  defeat;  the  Alamo  had  not  one!'' 

Here  are  contradictions  that  might  be  thought 
sufficient  to  give  us  pause;  yet  not  contradictions 
large  or  conclusive  enough  to  rob  Davy  Crockett  of 
aught  of  the  fame  that  has  been  accorded  him 
by  the  American  people.  In  order  to  reconcile  or 
explain  these  contrarieties,  and  hence  to  understand 
tiiis  strange  early  American,  we  shall  do  well  to 
review  the  better  known  and  most  authentic  inci- 
dents of  his  peculiar  career. 

Crockett  does  not  go  so  far  back  in  the  history 
of  the  west-bound  American  as  does  Daniel  Boone. 
The  latter  died  at  the  age  of  eighty-six.  Crockett, 
who  died  about  ten  years  later  than  Boone,  was 
but  fifty  years  of  age.  His  life  falls  in  the  trans- 
Mississippi  period  of  the  Western  population  move- 
ment. He  was  born  August  seventeenth,  1786,  in 
Greene  County,  Tennessee.  His  grandfather  was  an 
Irishman  w^ho  came  to  Pennsylvania,  thence  moved 
west  in  order  to  avail  himself  of  the  settlers'  right 
of  four  hundred  acres  of  land,  which  carried  the  pre- 
emption right  of  an  additional  one  thousand  acres. 
A  goodly  portion  of  a  goodly  earth  lay  ready  to 
every  man's  hand  in  that  day  of  American  oppor- 
tunity. 


150  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

The  second  Crockett  homestead,  on  the  Holston 
River,  was  broken  up  by  the  Indians,  who  killed  the 
parents  and  several  of  the  children,  John  Crockett, 
David's  father,  being  one  of  the  few  that  escaped. 
John  Crockett  became  a  Eevolutionary  soldier,  and 
after  the  Eevolutionary  War  moved  to  North  Caro- 
lina, Just  as  did  the  father  of  Daniel  Boone. 

Following  the  path  of  the  earlier  Argonaut,  Boone, 
John  Crockett  in  1783  crossed  the  Alleghanies,  but 
settled  in  eastern  Tennessee,  instead  of  Kentucky.    In 
this  wilderness  David  was  born.    It  was  a  land  with- 
out religion,  without  schools,  without  civilization. 
In  such  an  environment  the  weaker  children  died. 
Naked  as  a  little  Indian,  David  Crockett  ran  about 
the  rude  cabin^  and  lived  because  he  was  fit  to  sur- 
vive.    One  of  his  earliest  recollections  is  that  of  an 
incident  in  which  his  uncle,  Joseph  Hawkins,  fig- 
ured.    Hawkins  accidentally  shot  one  of  the  neigh- 
bors, the  ball  passing  through  his  body.    There  was 
no  surgical  skill  possible,  and  it  was  considered  the 
proper  thing  in  the  treatment  of  this  wound  to  pass 
a  silk  handkerchief,  carried  on  the  end  of  a  ram- 
rod,  from   one    end   to    the   other   of  the   wound. 
Crockett  appears  to  have  seen  his  father  pull  a  silk 
handkerchief    entirely    through    the    body    of   this 
wounded  neighbor.     It  was  a  strong  breed,  that  of 
Tennessee  a  hundred  years  ago! 


DAVY  CROCKETT  151 

Of  course  this  settler  must  move  west,  and  again 
west.  At  the  fourth  move  of  his  life  he  located  on 
Cove  Creek,  the  boy  Davy  being  now  about  eight 
years  of  age.  About  this  time  Crockett's  father  lost 
his  grist-mill  by  fire.  Naturally  the  remedy  for  this 
was  to  move,  and  he  again  took  up  his  journey, 
settling  this  time  on  the  road  between  Abingdon 
and  Knowlton,  where  he  opened  a  rude  tavern, 
patronized  mostly  by  teamsters  of  the  roughest  sort, — 
certainly  a  hard  enough  environment  for  the  coming 
statesman. 

The  earliest  description  of  Crockett  represents 
him  to  be  ^^a  wiry  little  fellow,  athletic,  with  nerves 
of  steel."  Even  in  childhood  he  was  given  to  fierce 
encounters,  yet  he  was  of  an  open  and  generous  dis- 
position. He  grew  up  practically  without  care,  his 
father,  if  truth  be  told,  being  a  man  of  somewhat 
gross  and  drunken  habits.  Davy  finally,  at  the  ma- 
ture age  of  thirteen,  forsook  the  paternal  roof  and 
set  out  in  the  world  for  himself. 

He  chanced  fortune  with  drovers,  driving  cattle  to 
the  eastward,  and  learned  to  be  hostler  and  general 
utility'  man,  becoming  acquainted  with  the  trail  that 
ran  between  Abingdon,  Witheville  and  Charlottes- 
ville, Orange  Court  House  and  other  points  in  Vir- 
ginia.    He  worked  for  a  few  months  as  a  farm  hand 


152  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

in  Virginia.  He  wandered  into  Baltimore,  with 
wonder  noticed  the  shipping  there,  and  came  near 
becoming  a  sailor,  but  was  rescued  from  that  fate. 
Buffeted  by  fortune  from  pillar  to  post,  he  worked 
one  month  for  a  farmer  at  a  wage  of  five  dollars.  He 
went  apprentice  to  a  hatter  and  worked  for  eighteen 
months  for  nothing,  at  the  end  of  which  time  the 
hatter  xmfortunately  failed  in  business. 

Poor  Davy  spent  two  years  in  these  wanderings, 
and  was  fifteen  years  old  when  all  at  once  he  again 
dawned  upon  the  paternal  grounds  in  eastern  Ten- 
nessee. These  two  years  had  been  spent  in  consider- 
able physical  discomfort  and  anguish  of  spirit,  and 
the  journey  home  was  accomplished  only  after  many 
dangers  and  difficulties.  Crockett  admits  that  at  this 
time  he  did  not  know  the  letters  of  the  alphabet.  His 
father,  shiftless  as  ever,  had  been  lavish  with  his 
promissory  notes.  He  offered  Davy  his  "freedom"  if 
he  would  work  six  months  for  a  neighbor  to  whom  he 
had  given  a  note  for  forty  dollars.  Davy  generously 
did  so,  and  capped  it  off  by  worldng  another  six 
months  and  taking  up  another  one  of  his  father's 
notes,  for  thirty-six  dollars.  This  last  he  was  not 
obliged  to  do,  yet  in  spite  of  these  bitter  surround- 
ings, there  had  flowered  in  the  young  savage's  heart 
a  certain  feeling  of  family  honor. 

Now  all  at  once  the  boy  backwoodsman  became 


DAVY  CROCKEtTT  l5a 

conscious  of  his  own  infirmities.  He  went  to  school 
six  months,  the  only  schooling  he  ever  had  in  his 
life.  He  learned  to  write  his  name,  to  spell  to 
some  extent,  to  perform  a  few  simple  sums  in  arith- 
metic. Twice  blighted  in  love  at  eighteen  years  of 
age,  he  married  a  pretty  little  Irish  girl,  a  daughter 
of  a  neighboring  family.  "I  know^d  I  would  get 
her,"  says  he,  "if  no  one  else  did  before  next  Thurs- 
day." 

Crockett  was  married  in  his  moccasins,  leggings 
and  hunting  shiri:.  His  bride  was  dressed  in  linsey- 
woolsey.  There  was  no  jewelry.  The  table  on  which 
the  wedding  feast  was  spread  was  made  of  a 
single  slab.  The  platters  were  of  wood,  the  spoons 
of  pewter  and  of  horn.  In  his  own  abode,  as  he 
fiist  entered  it,  there  was  no  bed  and  not  a  chair, 
a  knife  or  a  fork.  Yet,  after  the  expenditure  of 
fifteen  dollars,  which  he  borrowed,  Crockett  and  his 
wife  "fixed  the  place  up  pretty  grand,"  and  found  it 
good  enough  for  them  for  some  years.  Here  two 
boys  were  bom  to  them. 

At  the  ripe  age  of  twenty  years,  that  is  to  say 
in  the  year  1806,  Crockett  considered  it  necessary 
for  the  betterment  of  his  fortunes  that  he  should 
remove  farther  toward  the  West,  this  having  been 
iihe  universal  practice  of  his  kind.  He  journeyed 
for  four  hundred  miles  through  the  Western  wildei^ 


154  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

ness,  faking  his  family  and  "household  goods  with 
him.  Their  transportation,  as  we  are  advised,  con- 
sisted of  one  old  horse  and  two  colts.  These  animals 
were  packed  with  the  household  goods.  In  the  wild  . 
journey  down  the  Holston  the  family,  children  and 
all,  camped  out,  enduring  the  weather  as  best  they 
might.  At  last  they  came  to  a  halt  on  Mulberry 
Creek,  in  Lincoln  County,  in  what  they  took  to  be 
the  Promised  Land.  The  soil  was  generously  rich, 
game  and  fish  were  abundant,  the  climate  was  all 
that  could  be  asked.  Crockett  built  him  a  cabin, 
and  here  he  lived  for  two  years,  much  as  he  had  lived 
in  eastern  Tennessee.  Then,  in  the  easy  fashion  of 
the  time,  he  moved  once  more,  this  time  settling 
in  Franklin  County,  on  Bear  Creek,  still  in  the  wil- 
derness. 

Here  we  find  him  living  in  1813,  at  which  time 
the  call  went  out  for  volunteers  to  serve  in 
the  Creek  War  under  General  Jackson.  Without 
much  ado,  Crockett  said  good-by  to  his  family, 
joining  those  wild  irregular  troops  who,  amid  count- 
less hardships,  plodded  up  and  down  the  region  of 
Alabama  and  Georgia,  meeting  the  southern  In- 
dians, destroying  them  wholesale  or  piecemeal  as 
the  case  might  be.  Crockett  marched,  counter- 
marched, acted  as  spy  and  hunter,  doing  his  fuU 
share  of  the  work. 


DAVY  CEOCKETT  155 

All  the  time  he  was  rising  in  the  esteem  of  his 
fellow  men.  He  was  now  a  tall,  large-boned, 
muscular  man.  His  hair,  we  are  told,  was  sandy, 
his  eyes  blue,  his  nose  straight,  his  mouth  wide 
and  merry;  and  so  we  see  Davy  Crockett  the 
grown  man.  Never  having  known  anything  but 
hardship  all  his  life,  he  has  none  the  less  never  known 
an}i;hing  but  cheerfulness  and  content.  The  apt 
jest  and  catching  story  are  always  ready  on  his  lips. 
He  is  the  life  of  the  camp-fire.  Gradually  he  forges 
to  the  front.  The  qualities  of  leadership  begin  to 
appear. 

In  all  these  rude  military  experiences,  although 
Crockett  does  not  fancy  the  revolting  scenes  which 
in  some  instances  he  witnesses  at  the  Indian  killings, 
he  shows  the  ardent  nature,  the  fighting  soul.  Hence 
he  respects  the  fighting  man  and  pays  his  obedience 
to  General  Jackson.  There  is  no  hint  of  that  fatal 
falling  out  between  the  two  men  that  later  is  so 
suddenly  to  terminate  Crockett's  ambitions. 

In  1822,  after  his  return  from  this  petty  war, 
Crockett's  fortunes  once  more  needed  mending,  aiid 
the  remedy,  of  course,  was  to  move  again.  He  had 
previously  explored  nearly  all  of  Alabama,  and 
later  investigated  southern  Tennessee,  finally  locat- 
ing on  Shool  Creek,  in  Giles  County.     Crockett's 


156  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

faithful  wife,  the  little  Irish  woman,  had  died,  and 
he,  ever  ready  to  console  himself,  now  married  a 
widow  of  the  neighborhood,  an  estimable  woman,  who 
added  two  children  to  his  already  growing  family. 
This  second  wiie  appears  to  have  been  a  dignified 
and  able  woman.  Little  is  known  of  her,  and  she 
seems  to  have  lived  the  life  of  the  average  frontier 
woman,  patiently  and  uncomplainingly  following 
her  lord  and  master  in  all  his  enterprises  and  his 
wanderings.  Two  pack-horses  still  served  to  trans- 
port all  the  family  goods  on  this  latest  journey. 

The  greed  for  land  had  rapidly  sent  a  turbulent 
population  into  the  Cherokee  country  of  the  "New 
Purchase"  where  Crockett  now  resided,  and  among 
these  lawless  souls  restrictions  were  needed,  although 
the  country  knew  no  law  and  had  no  courts.  Crock- 
ett was  elected  Judge,  without  any  commission  and 
without  any  formal  process  of  law.  He  served  wisely, 
and  although  unable  to  write  a  warrant,  he  some- 
times issued  verbal  warrants.  He  claimed  that  his 
decisions  were  always  just  and  that  they  "stuck  like 
wax." 

Meantime  he  had  been  elected  colonel  of  militia 
over  a  bumptious  rival.  Now,  all  at  once,  and 
perhaps  originally  more  as  a  matter  of  jest  than 
anything  else,  as  was  the  case  in  his  second  candi- 


DAVY  CROCKETT  157 

daey,  his  name  came  up  for  the  legislature.  Crock- 
ett inaugurated  a  canvass  on  lines  of  his  own.  In 
brief,  he  talked  little  of  politics,  for  he  knew  nothing 
of  such  matters.  He  told  a  brief  story,  traded  a 
^coon  skin  for  a  bottle  of  liquor,  treated  the  crowd, 
promised  to  sell  a  wolf  scalp  and  treat  them  again, 
and  so  passed  on  to  the  next  gathering.  He  was 
elected  without  difficulty. 

But  of  course  misfortune  once  more  must  overtake 
our  hero,  and  he  must  move  again,  this  time  as  far 
as  he  can  go  and  not  cross  the  Mississippi  Eiver. 
This  next  home,  and  the  last  one  he  established, 
was  made  in  the  northwestern  corner  of  Tennessee, 
on  the  Obion  River,  near  the  Mississippi  River,  not 
far  from  what  is  now  known  as  Reel  Foot  Lake, 
and  in  the  heart  of  that  wild  country  then  known 
as  the  ^'Shakes." 

This  was  near  the  submerged  lands  affected  by  the 
New  Madrid  earthquakes,  a  country  naturally  rich  in 
many  ways.  It  was  a  cane-brake  countr}^  a  heavily 
timbered  but  somewhat  broken  region,  crossed  now 
and  again  by  terrific  windfalls  locally  known  as 
*Tiurricanes."  You  may  see  such  country  in  the 
Mississippi  Delta  to-day,  two  hundred  miles  south  of 
Crockett's  home.  Crockett's  neighbors  on  the  Obion 
were  three  in  number,  respectively  seven,  fifteen  and 
twenty  miles  distant. 


158  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

On  his  trip  of  exploration  lie  planted  his  first  crop 
of  corn  by  means  of  a  sharp  stick,  just  as  he  had 
broken  the  earth  at  each  of  his  earlier  homes.  He  was 
rejoiced  to  find  that  the  com  grew  excellently,  and 
yet  more  rejoiced  to  know  that  he  had  found  a  su- 
perb hunting  ground.  In  his  early  life  his  game 
consisted  chiefly  of  deer  and  turkey.  Here  bear, 
deer  and  turkey  were  very  numerous,  and  there  were 
also  elk  occasionally  to  be  seen.  The  buffalo  is 
never  mentioned  up  to  this  time  in  Crockett's  life, 
and  that  animal  had  probably  by  this  time,  1822, 
become  practically  extinct  in  Kentucky  and  Mis- 
souri. 

Mr.  J.  S.  C.  Abbott^  in  his  biography  of  Crock- 
ett, writes  of  his  station  at  this  time:  "Most  men, 
most  women,  gazing  upon  a  scene  so  wild,  lonely 
and  cheerless,  would  say,  ^Let  me  sink  into  the  grave 
rather  than  be  doomed  to  such  a  home  as  this.'^' 
Such  is  the  point  of  view  of  the  narrow  observer  that 
never  knew  his  America.  Not  so  Davy  Crockett. 
He  did  not  find  this  region  lonely  or  cheerless. 
On  the  contrary,  we  find  him  fraternizing  with  the 
rude  boatmen  from  points  lower  down  on  the 
Mississippi  Eiver,  and  making  himself  very  comfort- 
able. Presently  he  goes  back  after  his  family, 
bringing  them  on  to  his  new  home  in  October  of  that 
year.     They  and  their  belongings  are  transported 


DAVY  CROCKETT  159 

by  two  horses,  this  limited  cavalcade  being  still  suf- 
ficient to  carry  all  the  worldly  belongings  of  David 
Crockett,  hunter,  warrior,  magistrate  and  legislator. 
Davy  is  still  poor,  but  he  does  not  wish  to  "sink  into  ; 
the  grave."  On  the  contrary,  as  he  journeys  along  \ 
the  wild  woodland  path  he  sings,  jests  and  whistles, 
happy  as  the  birds  about  him,  content  am^ng  the 
sweet  mysteries  of  the  untracked  forests.  He  is 
the  product  of  wild  nature,  as  savage  as  the  most 
savage,  a  man  primeval,  unfettered,  free.  He  is  the 
new  man,  the  man  of  the  west,  the  new- American. 

As  an  example  of  Crockett's  early  electioneering 
methods,  we  may  cite  his  procedure  in  his  first  can- 
vass for  the  legislature.    He  says : 

"I  didn't  know  what  the  government  was.  I 
didn't  know  but  General  Jackson  was  the  govern- 
ment;" a  statement  not  wholly  the  product  of  sar- 
casm. He  met  Colonel  Polk,  later  President  Polk, 
and  according  to  his  own  story  the  colonel  remarked : 

"It  is  possible  we  may  have  some  changes  in  the 
judiciary." 

"Very  likely,"  replied  Davy,  "very  likely,"  and 
discreetly  withdrew. 

^^ell,"  he  comments,  "if  I  know'd  what  he  meant 
by  ^judiciary,'  I  wish  I  may  be  shot.  I  never  heard 
there  was  such  a  thing  in  all  nature." 

Yet   another   electioneering    story   attributed   to 


160  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

Crockett,  perhaps  authentic  as  many  of  those  told  re- 
garding him,  shows  well  enough  the  rude  temper  of 
his  region,  if  we  do  not  go  further,  and  accord  to  it  a 
certain  hint  of  that  :niitive  humor  that  was  later  to 
see  its  growth  in  Americb. 

^^1  had  taken  old  Betsy,''  says  he,  referring  to 
his  rifle,  '^'^and  straggled  o2  to  the  banks  of  the 
Mississippi  Eiver,  and  meeting  no  game,  I  didn't  like 
it.  I  felt  mighty  wolfish  about  the  head  and  ears, 
and  thought  I'd  spile  if  I  wasn't  kivvered  in  salt, 
for  I  hadn't  had  a  fight  in  ten  days.  I  cum  acrost 
a  fellow  who  was  floatin'  down-stream,  settin'  in  the 
stern  of  his  boat,  fast  asleep.  Said  I,  ^Hello, 
stranger,  if  you  don't  take  care  your  boat  will  get 
away  from  you;'  and  he  looked  up  and  said  he,  ^I 
don't  value  you.'  He  looked  up  at  me  slantendicu- 
lar,  and  I  looked  down  at  him  slantendicular;  and 
he  took  a  chaw  of  turbaccur,  and  said  he,  ^I  don't 
value  you  that  much.'  Said  I,  ^Come  ashore.  I  can 
whip  you.  I've  been  tryin'  to  get  a  fight  all  the 
momin';'  and  the  varmint  flapped  his  wings  like  a 
chicken.  I  ris  up,  shook  my  mane,  and  neighed  like  a 
horse. 

"He  run  his  boat  plump  head  foremost  ashore.  I 
stood  still  and  sot  my  triggers — ^that  is,  I  took  off 
my  shirt,  and  tied  my  gallusses  tight  around  my 
waist — and  at  it  we  went.    He  was  a  right  smart 


DAVY  CROCKETT  161 

'coon,  but  hardly  a  bait  fer  a  feller  like  me.  I  put 
it  to  him  mighty  droll.  In  ten  minutes  he  yelled 
enough,  and  swore  I  was  a  ripstaver.  Said  I,  'Ain^t 
I  the  yaller  flower  of  the  forest?  I'm  all  brimstone 
but  the  head  and  ears,  and  that's  aquafortis.'  Said 
he,  'You're  a  beauty,  and  if  I  know'd  yore  name 
I'd  vote  for  you  next  election,'  Said  I,  'I'm  that 
same  Davy  Crockett.  Y^ou  know  what  I  am  made 
of.  I've  got  the  closest  shootin'  rifle,  the  best  'coon 
dog,  the  biggest  bear  tickler  and  the  ruffest  rackin' 
horse  in  the  district.  I  can  kill  more  likker,  oool 
out  more  men,  and  fool  more  varmints  than  any 
man  you  can  find  in  all  Tennessee !'  Said  he,  'Good 
morning,  stranger,  I'm  satisfied.'  Said  I,  'Good 
morning,  sir ;  I  feel  much  better  since  our  meeting — 
don't  forget  about  that  vote.' "  ^  - 

Congressmen  to-day  do  not  employ  language  quite 
so  picturesque,  or  methods  of  vote-getting  quite  so 
crude.  The  story  is  a  trifle  apochrjrphal ;  yet  Crockett 
himself,  in  what  is  called  his  autobiography,  a  work 
which  he  no  doubt  dictated,  or  at  least  authorized, 
gives  the  following  account  of  one  of  his  speeches 
to  a  stranger,  at  Raleigh,  while  Crockett  was  en 
route  to  Washington  to  take  his  first  seat  in  Con- 


"Said  he,  'Hurrah  for  Adams!'  and  said  I,  'Hur- 
rah for  hell,  and  praise  your  own  country!'    And 


162  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

he  said,  ^Who  are  you?'  Said  I,  'I'm  that  same 
Davy  Crockett,  fresh  from  the  backwoods,  half 
horse,  half  alligator,  a  little  touched  with  snapping 
turtle,  can  wade  the  Mississippi,  leap  the  Ohio,  ride 
a  streak  of  lightning,  slide  down  a  honey  locust  and 
not  get  scratched.  I  can  whip  my  weight  in  wild- 
cats, hug  a  bear  too  close  for  comfort,  and  eat  any 
man  opposed  to  Jackson.' "  Which  last  remark  he 
fain  would  qualify  largely  later  in  his  political  ca- 
reer! An  innate  shrewdness  that  told  him  how 
to  avoid  committing  himself  was  Crockett's  original 
capital  in  politics,  as  it  was  in  life.  His  native  wit, 
his  good  fellowship,  his  rollicking  good  humor,  his 
courage  and  strength,  his  skill  with  weapons  brought 
him  success.  He  was  fitted  for  success  in  those  sur- 
^oundings^ 

Crockett  is  always  chronicled  as  one  of  the  great 
American  hunters,  and  this  name  he  deserves.  He 
was  a  good  rifle-shot.  In  his  cane-brake  country  he 
hunted  the  black  bear  just  as  it  is  hunted  to-day  in 
the  similar  country  of  the  Mississippi  Delta,  by 
means  of  dogs,  without  which  the  hunter  would  only 
by  the  remotest  chance  ever  get  sight  of  an  animal 
so  shy  as  the  black  bear. 

Abbott,  who  seems  to  apologize  for  Crockett,  needs 
for  himself  an  apologist,  for  he  displays  a  lamentable 
ignorance  of  the  environment  of  which  he  writes,  as 


DAVY  CKOCKETT  165 

well  as  of  many  eoinmon  facts  in  natural  history.  As 
a  matter  of  fact  there  was  no  risk  whatever  in  the 
pursuit  of  the  black  bear,  even  when  the  hunter  was 
not  accompanied  by  his  dogs,  whose  presence  elimi- 
nated the  last  possible  danger  of  the  chase.  In  those 
days  the  rifle  was  a  single-shot  muzzle-loader,  in 
no  wise  so  effective  as  the  modem  hunting  arm, 
but  even  thus  early  in  the  history  of  American  wild 
game,  the  black  bear  had  ceased  to  be  a  formidable 
animal,  if  indeed  he  ever  was  such.* 

Abbott,  with  gross  and  indeed  singular  inaccuracy, 
repeatedly  speaks  of  Crockett  as  killing  the  ^^grizzly 
bear'  and  he  mentions  the  ^^shaggy  skins"  of  these 
^^ferocious  animals."  In  reality  Davy  Crockett  saw 
nothing  but  the  flat,  smooth  hides  of  the  common 
black  bear  of  the  South,  one  of  the  most  cowardly  ani- 
mals that  ever  lived.  He  killed  numbers  of  them, 
and  enjoyed  the  vociferous  chase  with  his  hounds. 
Sometimes  he  did  not  need  to  use  the  rifle,  but 
kiUed  the  bear  with  the  knife,  a  feat  often  repeated 
by  men  of  the  present  generation  in  the  cane-brake 
hunting  of  the  South. 

Crockett  mentions  killing  one  bear  that  weighed 
six  hundred  and  seventeen  pounds,  and  he  speaks  of 


♦The  black  bears  which  fed  on  the  corpses  left  on  the  field  of 
Braddock's  Defeat  became  for  a  time  bold  and  somewhat  fearless 
ef  man. 


164  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

another  that  he  thinks  weighed  six  hundred  pounds. 
In  one  hunt  of  two  weeks  he  killed  fifteen  bears.  Once 
he  killed  three  bears  in  half  an  hour,  and  at  another 
time  six  in  one  day,  with  an  additional  four  on  the 
following  day.  In  one  week  tlie  total  was  seventeen 
bears,  and  in  the  next  hunt  he  speaks  of  killing  ten 
of  the  same  animals.  He  states  that  he  killed  fifty- 
eight  bears  in  the  fall  and  winter  of  that  year,  and  in 
one  month  of  the  following  spring  he  added  fort}"- 
seven  bears  to  his  score,  a  total  of  a  hundred  and  five 
killed  in  less  than  one  year.  In  all  he  killed  several 
hundred  bears,  very  many  deer  and  countless  small 
game.  He  was  a  benefactor  to  all  the  poor  laboring 
folk  that  lived  anywhere  near  him,  and  speaks  of 
giving  one  poverty-stricken  neighbor  a  thousand 
pounds  of  meat,  the  product  of  his  rifle  during  a  few 
hours  of  one  afternoon.* 

There  never  was  a  land  more  fruitful  in  animal 
life  than  this  South  which  supported  the  early  West- 
erners. In  such  surroundings  life  was  a  simple  mat- 
ter. The  chase  and  the  rude  field  of  com  offered 
sufficient  returns  to  satisfy  the  frontiersman. 


♦These  stories  are  not  to  be  doubted,  and  are  not  especially 
wonderful.  The  writer  has  often  hunted  in  Mississippi  with  a 
planter.  Colonel  R,  E.  Bobo,  who  more  than  equalled  all  of 
Crockett's  records.  In  one  year,  soon  after  his  first  arrival  in 
Coahoma  County,  Mississippi,  Colonel  Bobo  killed  two  hundred 
and  six  bears.  The  writer  was  present  when  ten  bears  were 
killed   in  eight  days. 


DAVY  CROCKETT  165 

One  day  as  Crockett  happened  to  he  in  a  settle- 
ment, some  forty  miles  from  his  home,  it  was  sug- 
gested that  he  run  once  more  for  the  legislature. 
He  agreed,  and  forthwith  announced  himself  as  can- 
didate. His  early  methods  were  again  successful. 
Discovering  in  hiniself  now  certain  latent  powers 
whose  existence  he  had  not  suspected,  he  later  agreed 
to  run  for  Congress,  hut  was  defeated  hy  his  late 
supporter  and  friend,  Colonel  Alexander,  hy  the 
scant  margin  of  two  votes.  Cotton  was  high,  and 
Alexander  said  it  was  hecause  of  the  1824  tariff. 
Davy  did  not  know  what  the  tariff  was,  and  could 
not  answer! 

Crockett  at  this  time  is  described  as  a  "finely  pro- 
portioned man,  about  six  feet  high,  forty-five  years 
of  age,  of  very  frank,  pleasing  and  open  counte- 
nance." He  was  dressed  in  homespun  and  wore 
a  black  fur  cap  on  his  head,  when  seen  by  a  traveler 
who  met  him  at  his  house.  He  now  began-  to  show 
'^an  unusual  strength  of  mind  and  a  memory  almost 
miraculous."  Uncultured,  ignorant,  terribly  handi- 
capped by  lack  of  training  and  opportunity,  he  over- 
came it  all.  He  got  his  ammunition  from  the 
enemy.  He  received  his  sole  political  education 
from  his  opponent's  political  speeches,  as  witness 
his  second  campaign  for  Congress.  Cotton  dropped 
in  price.     Davy  promptly  found  that  the  tariff  argu- 


166  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

ment  would  work  both  ways,  and  he  took  his  advan- 
tage. He  was  elected  to  Congress,  and  re-elected,  the 
second  victory  showing  a  majority  of  three  thousand 
five  hundred  votes. 

It  is  at  this  stage  of  his  career  that  we  may  speak 
of  the  birth  of  the  second  or  real  David  Crockett. 
These  wild  surroundings  have  now  begotten  in  him  a 
rugged  sense  of  self-reliance  and  a  personal  independ- 
ence that  henceforth  manifest  themselves  unmistak- 
ably. He  is  a  politician,  but  an  independent  politician. 
^T  would  as  soon  be  a  'coon  dog  as  to  be  obliged 
to  do  what  any  man  or  set  of  men  told  me  to  do," 
lie  says.  *'I  will  pledge  myself  to  support  no  admin- 
istration." "I  would  rather  be  politically  dead  than 
hypocritically  immortalized,"  he  declares;  and  in  yet 
another  instance  he  says  that  he  "will  not  submit 
to  the  party  gee-whoa-haw;"  that  he  will  be  "no 
man's  man,  and  no  party's  man." 

In  spite  of  all  these  personal  dicta  he  is  elected. 
His  election  costs  one  hundred  and  fifty  dollars,  all 
in  borrowed  money.  It  costs  David  Crockett,  con- 
gressman, an  additional  one  hundred  dollars,  also 
borrowed,  to  get  to  the  national  Capitol  at  Washing- 
ton, where  he  arrives  perhaps  the  most  unique  speci- 
men of  Congressman  ever  produced  in  this  broad 
land  of  ours.  His  first  act  is  to  pay  his  debts — ^which 
not  all  Congressmen  since  then  have  done  so  prompt- 


DAVY  CROCKETT  167 

ly.  It  is  hard  for  the  backwoods  congressman  at 
Washington,  yet  he  has  good  sense,  good  tact,  good- 
nature and  a  magnetic  temperament.  His  motto, 
"Be  sure  you  are  right,  then  go  ahead,"  wins  for  him 
sudden  fame.  Perhaps  it  is  fame  too  sudden.  Now 
we  must  bid  good-by  to  Davy  Crockett,  bear  hunter. 
He  is  bitten  of  the  fatal  poison  of  political  ambition. 
From  this  time  on  the  record  of  his  life  is  for  a  while 
public,  plain  and  well  known. 

Crockett  was  a  Southerner  and,  as  has  been  stated, 
at  first  a  friend  of  the  Jacksonian  Democracy. 
Naturally  he  should  have  been  expected  to  prove 
loyal  to  the  doctrines  of  the  South,  and  the  South 
at  that  time  was  held  in  the  hollow  of  Old  Hickory's 
hand.  Note  now  a  sudden  sternness  of  fiber  in 
the  bear  hunter's  character  that  entitles  him  to  a 
better  name  than  that  of  time-serving  politician. 
As  a  matter  of  conviction  and  principle  he  differs 
from  the  autocratic  leader  then  sitting  in  the  presi- 
dent's chair.  He  opposes  President  Jackson's  In- 
dian bill,  and  the  proposition  to  withdraw  the  de- 
posits from  the  United  States  banks.  Indeed,  in- 
stead of  being  a  follower  of  Jackson,  he  comes  out 
boldly  as  an  opponent  of  his  former  leader. 

The  North  hails  him  joyously  as  a  Southerner  with 
a  Whig  heart.  Let  Davy  make  the  most  of  it ;  none  the 
less  he  loses  the  next  contest  for  Congress  in  his 


168  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

district.  Yet  lie  fights  again,  gets  the  nomination 
for  the  next  term,  wins  once  more  and  hastens  rap- 
idly toward  the  height  of  a  national  popularity.  Ee- 
alizing  his  own  ignorance  of  the  North  and  East,  in 
1834  he  undertakes  a  journey  to  those  sections.  At 
Baltimore  he  sees  a  railroad  for  the  first  time  in 
his  life,  and  witnesses  the  tremendous  feat  of  seven- 
teen miles  made  by  a  railway  train  in  the  time  of 
fifty-five  minutes!  At  Philadelphia  crowds  meet  him 
at  the  wharf  and  cheer  him  to  the  echo.  He  is 
banqueted  repeatedly,  wined  and  dined  times  with- 
out number,  and  made  the  recipient  of  countless 
attentions.  The  young  Whigs  of  Philadelphia  come 
close  to  his  heart  when  they  make  him  a  present 
of  a  fine  rifle,  the  very  rifle  that  took  the  place  of 
"Old  Betsy"  and  was  with  Crockett  in  his  last  fight 
at  the  Alamo. 

In  New  York,  in  Boston  and  the  larger  manu- 
facturing towns  of  Massiachusetts,  Crockett  repeats 
his  Philadelphia  triumphs.  He  is  now  a  national 
figure.  His  sayings  and  doings  are  quoted  through- 
out the  land.  If  his  Northern  speeches  are  cor- 
rectly reported,  he  has  at  this  time  suddenly  be- 
come the  possessor  of  an  easy  and  not  undignified 
oratorical  style,  though  all  his  speeches  are  still 
well  sprinkled  with  quaint  epigrams  and  homely  illus- 
trations. 


DAVY  CROCKETT  169 

We  see  in  the  Crockett  of  1834  a  figure  not  ap- 
proached by  any  other  American  statesman  so  nearly 
as  by  that  other  rugged  Westerner,  Abraham  Lincoln. 
These  crude,  virile,  tremendous,  human  men,  product 
of  the  soil,  born  of  the  hard  ground  and  the  blue  sky 
— how  they  do  appeal,  how  they  do  grow,  how  they 
do  succeed. 

Crockett  is  asked  to  visit  Harvard  College,  but 
refuses  for  quaint  reasons  of  his  own.  Andrew  Jack- 
son has  been  made  an  LL.  D.  by  Harvard,  and 
Crockett  says  that  *'one  LL.  D.  is  enough  for  Tennes- 
see.^^ He  is  the  guest  of  Lieutenant-governor  Arm- 
strong, and  chronicles  naive  surprise  that  Mr.  Arm- 
strong "did  not  charge  him  anything,^'  for  entertain- 
ing him.  He  states  that  in  New  England  he 
found  "more  liberality  than  the  Yankee  generally 
gets  credit  for."  He  expresses  his  gratitude  for  the 
kindly  reception  accorded  him  in  New  England  and 
chronicles  his  admiration  for  the  thrift  and  industry 
of  that  country,  which  seems  to  have  made  a  vivid 
impression  on  his  mind,  different  as  these  scenes 
were  from  the  wild  surroundings  in  which  he  himself 
had  grown  up. 

This  trip  into  the  North  wrought  epochal  change 
for  our  bear  hunter.  He  leams  now  about  tlie  tariff, 
studies  and  approves  the  doctrines  of  protection — 
rank  heresy  for  a  Southerner.    Deep  water  for  Davj' 


170  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

now !  He  seems  to  have  haxi  no  counsel  of  prudence, 
for  now  he  loses  no  opportunity  to  chronicle  his  ani- 
mosity toward  General  Jackson. 

"Hero — that  is  a  name  that  ought  to  be  first  in 
war  and  last  in  peace,"  says  he.  Commenting  on 
the  faithlessness  of  the  government,  he  flames  out: 
"I  had  considered  a  treaty  as  the  sovereign  law  of 
the  land,  and  now  I  hear  it  considered  as  a  matter 
of  expedience."  This  was  in  reference  to  the  treat- 
ment accorded  the  southern  Indians  by  the  United 
States  government. 

"This  thing  of  man-worship  I  am  a  stranger  to," 
says  he,  with  personal  allusion,  of  course,  to  Jack- 
son. In  all  these  sayings  he  is,  it  may  naturally  be 
supposed,  heartily  applauded  by  the  Northerners, 
who  rejoice  in  this  notable  accession  to  their  own 
ranks. 

Davy  Crockett,  bear  hunter  and  congressman, 
has  now  had  his  chance.  He  takes  himself  seri- 
ously, even  when  he  jokes  about  his  being  the  next 
president  of  the  United  States.  Crockett  repre- 
sents now  the  success  of  perfect  digestion,  of  the 
perfectly  normal  nervous  system.  Nothing  irritates 
him.  The  world  to  him  runs  smoothly,  as  it  does 
to  any  hardy  animal.  He  cares  not  for  the  past 
and  has  no  concern  for  the  physical  future.  His 
big  brain,  so  long  fallow,  so  long  unstirred,  begins 


DAVY  CROCKETT  171 

now  to  fill  up  with  thouglits  and  ideas  and  compari- 
sons and  conclusions.  His  reason  is  clear  and 
bright.  He  presents  to  the  world  the  startling  specta- 
cle of  a  middle-aged  man  educating  himself  to  the 
point  of  an  intelligent  statesmanship,  and  that  within 
the  space  of  a  few  brief  months  or  years.  He  displays 
a  clarity  of  vision  nothing  short  of  marvelous.  His 
memory  of  names,  of  dates  and  data  is  something 
startling.  The  world  of  books  remains  closed  to  him, 
so  that  he  learns  by  ear,  like  a  child,  but  he  surprises 
friends  and  foes  alike.  The  husk  of  the  chrysalis 
has  been  broken.  The  Westerner  has  been  born  into 
the  American  I 

Davy  Crockett  had  thus  far  never  met  any  dan- 
ger of  a  nature  to  inspire  fear,  any  difficulty  he 
could  not  overcome,  any  hardship  he  could  not 
lightly  endure.  He  now  encountered  one  enemy 
greater  than  any  to  be  met  with  in  the  wilderness — 
that  great  and  menacing  foe,  the  political  machine. 
He  found  to  his  sorrow  that  honor  and  manhood  will 
not  always  serve,  and  at  the  summit  of  his  success  he 
met  his  first  and  irremediable  defeat. 

Crockett,  once  the  politician,  now  grown  into  Crock- 
ett the  eager  student,  the  earnest  statesman,  had 
stirred  up  animosities  too  great  for  him  to  overcome. 
The  relentless  hand  of  Jackson  smote  hard  upon 
Crockett's  district.     There  was  talk  of  money,  and  of 


172  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

votes  influenced  by  its  use.  Poor  Davy,  who  went  into 
this  last  campaign  of  Congress  as  blithely  and  as  sure 
of  success  as  ever  in  his  life,  learned  that  he  had  been 
defeated  by  a  total  of  two  hundred  and  thirty  votes ! 
Then  there  arose  from  the  honest  and  generous  soul 
of  this  strange  child  of  the  wilderness  a  great  and 
bitter  cry.  He  was  among  the  first  to  exclaim  against 
the  creed  of  politics  pursued  as  politics,  of  statesman- 
ship that  is  not  statesmanship — the  creed  of  party 
and  not  of  manhood. 

"As  my  country  no  longer  requires  my  services/' 
he  writes,  "I  have  made  up  my  mind  to  leave  it." 
Expressing  his  determination  forthwith  to  leave  Ten- 
nessee and  to  start  for  the  distant  land  of  Texas,  he 
says,  "I  have  a  new  row  to  hoe,  a  long  and  rough 
one;  but  I  will  go  ahead."  He  adds  as  quaintly  as 
ever,  "I  told  my  constituents  they  might  all  go  to 
hell,  and  I  would  go  to  Texas." 

We  come  now  to  the  third  and  closing  stage  of 
the  life  of  David  Crockett,  and  in  order  to  under- 
stand it  we  must  bear  in  mind  the  nature  of  the 
opinions  then  current  concerning  the  new  land  that 
to  the  Southerners  of  that  time  was  "The  Great 
West,"  the  land  beyond  the  Mississippi.  Texas,  a 
magnificent  realm  eight  hundred  and  twenty-five  by 
seven  hundred  and  forty-five  miles  in  extent,  already 
had  an  American  population  of  nearly  forty  thou- 


DAVY  CROCKETT  173 

sand;  and  of  all  wild  populations  ever  gathered 
together  at  any  place  or  time  of  the  world,  this 
was  perhaps  the  wildest  and  the  most  indomitable. 
There  was  hardly  a  soul  within  the  borders  of  that 
great  land  who  was  not  a  fighting  man  and  who  had 
not  come  to  take  his  fighting  chance.  It  was  fate 
♦that  Davy  Crockett  should  drift  into  this  far  South- 
west and  take  his  chances  also. 

As  to  the  chances  of  it,  they  were  not  so  bad. 
It  was  almost  sure  that  Texas  would  ultimately  be 
won  from  Mexico.  In  1813  an  expedition  of  Ameri- 
cans had  fought  Spain  and  killed  some  hundreds  of 
Spaniards,  on  the  strength  of  the  general  claim  that 
the  territory  of  Louisiana  extended  westward  as  far 
as  the  Rio  Grande,  and  not  merely  to  the  neighborhood 
of  the  Sa.bine  River,  as  was  claimed  by  Spain.  The 
latter  river  was  in  1819  generally  accepted  as  the 
boundary  line,  but  this  fact  did  not  serve  to  stop 
the  Americans. 

In  1823  Stephen  A.Austin  was  settling  his  Mexican 
grant  with  his  new  colony.  These  families  drew  after 
them  the  inevitable  train  of  relatives  and  friends,  so 
that  the  great  River  Road  to  the  South  and  South- 
west soon  began  to  be  pressed  by  the  feet  of  many 
pilgrims.  In  1821  Lafitte  made  his  rough  settlement 
at  Galveston,  and  the  pirates  of  Lafitte  were  no  worse 
than  the  average  Texas  population    of    that  time. 


174  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

There  were  no  schools^  no  courts,  no  law.  One  writer 
states  that  he  sat  at  breakfast  with  eleven  men,  each 
of  whom  had  pending  against  him  in  another  state 
a  charge  of  murder.  Then  originated  the  etiquette 
of  the  wild  West  that  demanded  that  no  one  should 
inquire  into  his  neighbor's  past,  nor  ask  his  earlier 
name.  • 

In  1833  there  were  twenty  thousand  Americans  that 
wished  Texas  to  have  an  organization  separate  from 
the  sta-te  of  Coahuila.  They  were  not  so  particular 
as  to  what  government  claimed  their  state,  but 
they  wished  to  organize  and  run  it  for  themselves. 
Meeting  a  natural  opposition  from  Mexico  in  this 
enterprise,  in  the  year  1835  they  banded  their 
forces,  overturned  the  Mexican  government,  and 
set  up  a  provisional  government  of  their  own.  Henry 
Smith  was  chosen  provisional  governor  and  Sam 
Houston  commander-in-chief  of  this  wildest  of  all 
American  republics. 

On  December  twentieth,  1835,  these  Texans  issued 
their  proclamation  of  independence,  some  sixty 
years  after  the  Declaration  of  the  American  Inde- 
pendence. This  meant  but  one  thing.  Santa 
Anna,  then  as  much  as  anybody  governor  of  affairs 
in  Mexico,  marched  with  an  army,  stated  to  have 
numbered  seven  thousand  five  hundred  men,  to  be- 
siege the  Texans,  whose  main  body  was  located  at 


DAVY  CROCKETT  175 

San  Antonio.  !N"o  American  doubted  the  ultimate 
issue.  All  the  South  knew  that  the  wild  and  hardy 
population  of  this  new  region  would  beat  back  the 
weak  Latin  tenants  of  the  soil.  The  matter  was  well 
discussed  and  well  understood.  It  was  not  knight- 
errantry,  therefore,  so  much  as  politics,  that  led  Davy 
Crockett  southward  into  this  wild  hornets'  nest. 
Rather  should  we  say  that  all  this  movement  was  part 
of  the  mighty,  inexplicable,  fateful,  irresistible  Anglo- 
Saxon  pilgrimage  across  this  continent.  It  was  a 
'New  World.  These  new  men  were  those  fitted  to 
occupy  and  hold  it. 

At  this  time  the  historian  of  Crockett  falls  on 
a  curious  difficulty.  There  is  published  what  pur- 
ports to  be  an  autobiography  of  David  Crockett's 
life,  a  linsey-woolsey  affair,  made  up  partly  of  good 
English  and  partly  of  rough  backwoods  idiom  such 
as  we  are  accustomed  to  associate  with  the  speech 
of  this  singular  man.  This  "autobiography"  pur- 
ports to  be  continued  after  Crockett  leaves  his  Ten- 
nessee home  for  far-off  Texas.  Yet  at  this  point  its 
style  and  subject  matter  assume  such  shape  as  to 
lead  one  inevitably  to  conclude  that  Crockett  did 
not  write  it.  There  are  many  contradictions  and 
discrepancies,  and  much  of  the  detailed  story  of 
Crockett's  wanderings  in  the  Southwest  is  denied  by 
practically  the  only  eye-witness  of  the  time  qualified 


176  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

to  tell  of  his  experiences — ^that  Jonatlian  H.  Greene 
(the  'Tlamngton"  of  Crockett's  correspondence), 
once  gambler  and  later  reformed  man,  who  was  with 
Crockett  for  a  time  before  the  Alamo  fight.  Greene's 
story  does  not  in  all  points  tally  with  the  so- 
called  autobiography  of  Crockett,  nor  with  many  of 
the  popular  histories  of  his  life. 

In  general  it  may  be  determined  that,  with  some 
feeling  but  without  much  ado,  Crockett  said  farewell 
to  his  wife  and  family.  He  had  no  longer  heart  for 
bear  hunting.  He  wished  a  wider  field  of  life.  His 
journey  was  down  the  Mississippi  and  up  the  Arkan- 
sas Eiver  to  Little  Eock.  There  he  encountered  many 
hail-fellows-well-met,  and  had  several  experiences, 
which  are  set  forth  at  length  in  his  autobiography. 
He  journeyed  then  horseback  to  Fulton,  descended 
the  Eed  Eiver  to  Natchitoches  and  thence  made  his 
way  westward  across  Texas. 

The  so-called  autobiography  of  Crockett  describes 
two  or  three  strange  characters:  the  "Bee  Hunter," 
who  might  have  been  the  hero  of  an  English  melo- 
drama of  the  time;  "Thimblerig,"  the  sharper  whom 
Crockett  reforms  and  leads  on  to  die  a  hero's  death; 
the  "Pirate,"  who  dies  in  front  of  the  Alamo  gate; 
and  so  on.  There  is  something  strangely  unreal  in 
much  of  this.  It  does  not  ring  true.  Yet  we  are 
further  told  that  Crockett  crossed  the  Sabine,  that  he 


DAVY  CROCKETT  177 

met  the  Comanches,  that  he  saw  for  the  first  time 
the  tremendous  herds  of  buffalo,  that  he  encountered 
bands  of  wild  horses,  that  he  saw  much  wild  game, 
and  in  a  knife  fight  killed  a  panther.  The  feeling 
•is  irresistible  that  many  of  these  pictures  are  made 
to  order. 

At  last,  however,  without  much  ado  and  without 
any  adequate  explanation  of  Crockett's  real  motives, 
we  find  him  inside  the  gates  of  the  San  Antonio 
barracks,  one  of  that  little  party  whose  heroic  death 
was  to  set  the  whole  American  nation  a-throb,  first 
with  vengeful  fire,  and  then  with  a  passionate  love 
and  admiration. 

The  situation  was  thus:  Travis  in  San  Antonio, 
practically  hemmed  in  at  the  adobe  building  known 
as  the  Alamo:  Fannin  at  Goliad,  with  other  noble 
fellows  later  to  fall  victims  to  Mexican  treachery; 
at  a  distance  Sam  Houston,  apparently  irresolute 
and  non-committal.  Austin,  Fannin,  Travis,  Rush, 
James  Bowie,  the  Whartons,  Archer  of  Virginia — 
what  a  list  of  strong  names  was  here,  these  fight- 
ing men,  some  of  whom  had  come  for  politics,  some 
for  sport,  some  for  sheer  love  of  danger  and  adven- 
ture. Of  these,  Bowie,  Crockett,  Fannin  and  Travis 
might  have  been  declared  opposed  to  the  party  of 
Houston  and  Austin.  Crockett's  authentic  letter 
bitterly  accuses  Houston,  the  leader  of  the  Texans. 


178  THE  AVAY  TO  THE  WEST 

Houston,  mysterious,  vain,  enigmatical,  as  able  as 
lie  was  erratic,  might  perhaps,  had  his  followers 
been  less  tempestuous  and  independent,  haye  united 
them  into  a  harmonious  and  powerful  whole.  He 
could  not,  or  did  not.    Hence  came  the  Alamo  fight. 

Of  this  wild  army,  half  ruffian,  half  adventurous, 
most  of  the  men  were  poor,  although  they  came 
in  many  cases  from  good  families.  They  had  behind 
them  an  undeniable  sentiment  in  favor  of  the  inde- 
pendence of  Texas,  and  were  backed  by  money  raised 
for  that  purpose.  General  Jackson  openly  and  no- 
toriously favored  the  annexation  of  Texas,  and  per- 
haps even  of  Mexico,  and  went  so  far  as  to  suggest 
a  few  practical  though  unauthorized  plans  of  his 
own  as  to  how  the  army  might  be  used  to  bring 
about  a  conflict  and  later  a  pcuc  JacJcsonii.  Thus 
w^e  find  our  hero,  Davy  Crockett,  once  more  fall- 
ing into  the  plans  of  his  former  chief,  his  recently 
victorious  antagonist.  Old  Hickory. 

It  is  possible  that  Crockett  was  deceived  in  his 
pilgrimage  to  Texas.  There  is  more  than  a  suspicion 
that  he  was  used  as  a  cat's  paw  in  a  political  move- 
ment. He  says  that  "Houston  is  enjoying  the  support 
of  the  Government,  while  others  are  left  to  do  the 
fighting."  He  continues,  ''^Houston  has  dealt  with  us 
in  prevarications."  He  calls  Houston  the  "agent"  and 
Jackson  the  "manufacturer."     Yet  certainly  Crockett 


DAVY  CROCKETT  179 

was  backed  by  a  prevalent  and  strongly  growing  sen- 
timent. The  records  are  too  vague  and  insufficient. 
We  shall  never  fully  understand  all  these  compli- 
cations of  early  and  adventurous  politics. 

Be  all  these  things  as  they  may,  Crockett  was  one 
of  tlie  devoted  little  band  of  a  hundred  and  eighty- 
three  Texans,  who  in  time  found  themselves  besieged 
by  an  army  of  Mexicans  from  five  thousand  to  eight 
thousand  strong.  The  peons  of  Santa  Anna's  worth- 
less army  came  on  day  after  day,  the  bands  playing 
the  Dequelo,  which  meant  "no  quarter."  Tor 
eleven  days  the  Texans  held  the  Alamo,  in  that  his- 
toric fight  whose  details  are  so  generally  and  so  un- 
certainly known.  These  one  hundred  and  eighty- 
three  men  killed  of  the  enemy  more  than  one  thou- 
sand. Worn  out  by  loss  of  sleep  and  continuous 
musculax  exertion,  their  arms  simply  grew  weary 
from  much  slaying.  Their  hands  could  no  longer 
push  down  the  ladders  weighted  with  the  struggling 
peons  goaded  forward  by  the  swords  of  their  officers. 

At  length  an  assault  was  lodged.  The  swart  Mexi- 
cans, more  in  terror  than  in  exultation,  poured  across 
the  broken  wall.  In  the  hospital  lay  forty  helpless 
men,  each  with  his  rifle  at  his  side.  These,  sick  and 
crippled,  broken-bodied,  iron-hearted,  poured  their 
last  volley  into  their  assailants  as  they  came  in.  A 
cannon  was  discharged  down  the  room  and  nearly  a 


180  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

score  of  the  crippled  and  sick  were  blown  to  piec^ 
Outside,  in  the  open  space,  the  lances  of  the  Mexi- 
cans reached  farther  than  the  clubbed  rifles  or  the 
bitter,  biting  knives  of  the  stalwart  Americans,  now 
raging  in  their  last  tremendous,  magnificent  and 
awful  Baresark  rage. 

No  on^  xnows  the  story  of  the  end.  Even  the 
number  of  the  victims  is  matter  of  dispute  to-day. 
Some  say  there  were  a  hundred  and  eighty-three  de- 
fenders, some  say  a  hundred  and  eighty-six.  Some 
say  one  woman  escaped;  s-ome  say  two.  Some 
declare  that  one  negro  servant  got  away;  some  say 
two.  The  state  of  Texas  adopted  the  "Alamo  baby," 
but  the  Alamo  baby  did  not  see  Crockett  fall.  There 
are  different  reports.  Some  state  that  there  were 
six  Americans  left  hemmed  up  against  the  wall, 
and  that  the  Mexican  general,  Castrillon,  called 
upon  them  to  surrender.  They  did  so,  Crockett 
being  one  of  the  six.  Confronting  the  Mexican 
commander,  they  were  treacherously  ordered  to  be 
shot  down.  It  is  said  that  Crockett,  bowie  knife 
in  hand,  sprang  with  all  his  force  for  the  tliroat 
of  the  Mexican  general,  but  was  cut  down  or  shot 
down  with  the  others,  ^Tiis  face  even  in  death 
wreathed  in  an  expression  of  contempt  and  scorn 
at  such  treachery." 

All  this  is  but  imagination ;  and  there  is  all  reason 


DAVY  CROCKETT  181 

to  suppose  that  tliere  never  was  any  surrender  of  these 
six  last  survivors.  The  commoner  story  is  that  Crock- 
ett fought  to  the  last  with  his  broken  rifle,  and  was 
killed  against  the  wall,  before  him  lying  the  bodies  of 
some  twenty  Mexicans.  The  usual  impression  is  that 
he  killed  these  twenty  Mexicans  himself  before  he 
was  cut  down,  but  this  is  perhaps  the  result  of 
emotional  writing.  No  one  knows  how  many  foes 
had  fallen  to  his  arm.  No  one  can  tell  how  many 
Mexicans  each  of  these  raging,  fighting  men  de- 
stroyed before  he  himself  went  down.  Earlier  in 
the  siege  Crockett  recounts  picking  off  five  can- 
noneers one  after  the  other.  He  tells  how  the  Bee 
Hunter  and  Thimblerig  did  their  sharpshooting,  how 
the  Pirate  died  of  wounds  received  in  a  sortie,  how 
the  Bee  Hunter — a  most  unlikely  thing — ^burst  into 
poesy  and  song  at  the  hoisting  of  the  Texas  flag. 
Some  of  these  things  have  too  unreal  a  sound.  There 
is  something  not  quite  Crockett,  though  a  la  Crockett, 
in  the  conclusion  of  Crockett's  so-called,  or  rather 
alleged,  diary: 

'''March  5. — Pop,  pop,  pop!  Bom,  bom,  bom! 
throughout  the  day.  No  time  for  memorandums 
now.  Go  ahead.  Liberty  and  independence  for- 
ever!" 

These  are  the  last  recorded  words  of  dear  Davy 
Croekett.     It  is   probable  in  the  extreme  that  he 


182  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

never  wrote  them.  It  is  "unlikely  to  an  equal  degree 
that,  in  all  the  turmoil  of  the  Alamo  fight,  he  could 
deliberately  have  kept  a  diary,  or  that  it  could  have 
been  preserved  after  all  the  horrible  details  of  that 
bloody  and  disastrous  conflict.  As  to  the  end  of 
Davy  Crockett,  there  is  and  has  been  no  living  hu- 
man being  who  could  speak  with  absolute  accuracy 
and  authenticity.  Bloody  San  Jacinto,  the  field 
where  the  cry  "Eemember  the  Alamo!"  was  the 
watchword  of  a  dire  and  just  revenge,  left  but  few 
Mexican  eye-witnesses  of  the  Alamo. 

Be  that  as  it  may,  we  know  that  Davy  Crockett  died 
fighting,  that  he  died  with  his  face  to  the  enemy,  like 
the  brave  man  that  he  was,  undaunted,  unafraid.  No 
politics  now,  no  statesmanship,  no  little  ambitions 
now  for  Davy  Crockett.  He  was  once  more  the  child 
of  the  wilderness,  stark,  savage,  exultant,  dreadful, 
one  more  of  those  Titanic  characters  that  swept  away 
a  weaker  population,  beat  down  all  opposition,  con- 
quered the  American  wilderness  and  made  way  for  an 
American  civilization. 

The  study  of  Crockett's  life  shows  us  an  America 
yet  loose  and  scattered,  not  knit  together  into  a  na- 
tional whole;  and  the  political  problems  of  that  day 
were  still  those  arising  from  geography.  Backwoods 
Davy  was  after  all  not  so  poor  a  thinker,  nor  so  far 


DAVY  CROCKETT  183 

•^roTi;  getting  to  the  marrow  of  things.  After  his 
risit  to  the  North,  and  his  reconciliation  to  the  doc- 
trines of  a  protective  tariff,  he  makes  one  comment 
which,  while  it  may  not  settle  political  argument, 
ought  to  teach  a  national  courtes}'  and  a  human 
tolerance  on  both  sides  in  any  national  difference. 

"If  Southerners  would  visit  the  North,"  he  says, 
*^it  would  give  different  ideas  to  them  who  have  been 
deluded  and  spoken  in  strong  terms  of  dissolving  the 
Union."  A  trifle  ungrammatical  this,  perhaps,  but 
startling  reading,  when  one  remembers  that  it  was 
recorded  in  1834.  Again  we  find  our  independent 
thinker  discussing  freely  the  questions  of  transporta- 
tion, which  were  then  and  always  have  been  so  im* 
portant  in  this  country.  He  was  opposed  to  Jackson 
in  the  first  place  because  Jackson  "vetoed  the  bill  for 
the  Maysville  road.''  He  was  opposed  to  Van  Buren 
because  he  "voted  against  the  continuance  of  the  na- 
tional road  through  Ohio,  Indiana  and  Illinois,  and 
against  appropriations  for  its  preservation."  He  op- 
posed Van  Buren  further  because  he  "voted  in  favor 
of  toll  gates  on  the  national  road,  demanding  a 
tribute  from  the  West  for  the  right  to  pass  on  her  own 
highways,  constructed  out  of  her  own  mone}', — a 
thing  never  heard  of  before." 

Crockett's  changes  of  residence,  ever  drifting  far- 
ther to  the  westward  in  his  native  state,  and  his 


184  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

final  long  pilgrimage  to  the  Southwest,  where  he 
certainly,  though  his  autobiography  does  not  so  state, 
visited  different  parts  of  Texas  and  the  Indian  na- 
tions, is  index  of  the  tendency  of  the  times.  The 
West  of  that  day  is  the  South  of  to-day.  Thus,  a 
writer  of  1834  states,  ^^The  West  is  settled  by  repre- 
sentatives from  every  country,  but  it  is  very  largely 
indebted  for  its  inhabitants  to  Virginia,  Georgia  and 
the  two  Carolinas."  History  and  our  census  maps 
show  us  that  the  day  of  the  upper  West  was  yet 
to  come.  Boone  and  his  like  had  led  across  the 
Appalachians.  Crockett  and  his  like  had  crossed 
the  Mississippi.  The  march  toward  the  Rockies  was 
now  steadily  and  determinedly  begun,  under  what 
difficulties  and  with  what  results  we  shall  presently 
observe. 


CHAPTER  II 

AGAINST  THE  WATERS* 

In  1810  the  Western  frontier  of  the  United 
States  slanted  like  the  roof  of  a  house  from  Maine 
to  Louisiana,  The  center  of  population  was  almost 
exactly  on  the  site  of  the  city  of  Washington. 
The  West  was  a  distinct  section,  and  it  was  a  sec- 
tion that  had  begun  to  develop  an  aristocracy.  We 
still  wore  linsey-woolsey  in  Kentucky;  still  pounded 
our  com  in  a  hollow  stump  in  Ohio;  still  killed  our 
Indians  with  the  ancient  weapon  of  our  fathers; 
still  took  our  produce  to  New  Orleans  in  flat-boats; 
still  were  primitive  in  many  ways. 

None  the  less  we  had  among  us  an  aristocrat,  a  man 
who  classified  himself  as  better  than  his  fellow  men. 
There  had  been  born  that  early  captain  of  transporta- 
tion, the  keel-boatman,  the  man  that  could  go  up- 
stream. The  latter  had  for  the  stationary  or  semi- 
stationary  man  a  vast  and  genuine  contempt,  as 
nomad  man  has  ever  had  for  the  man  of  anchored 
habit.  There  was  warrant  for  this  feeling  of 
superiority,  for  the  keel-boat  epoch  was  a  great  one 


*The  Century  MasasiiM,  December,  1901. 
185 


186  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

111  American  history.  Had  this  clumsy  craft  never 
been  supplanted  by  the  steamboat,  its  yictories  would 
have  been  of  greater  value  to  America  than  all  the 
triumphs  she  ever  won  on  the  seas. 

As  for  the  keel-boatmen  themselves,  they  were 
a  hardy,  wild,  and  reckless  breed.  They  spent  their 
days  in  the  blazing  sun,  their  heads  drooping  over 
the  setting-pole,  their  feet  steadily  trudging  the 
walking-boards  of  their  great  vessels  from  morning 
until  night  and  day  after  day.  A  wild  life,  a  merry 
one,  and  a  brief,  was  that  lived  by  this  peculiar 
class  of  men,  who  made  characters  for  one  of  the 
vivid  chapters  in  the  tale  of  the  early  West. 

The  men  of  the  West  had  solved  in  some  rude 
way  the  problem  of  getting  up-stream,  though 
still  they  clung  to  the  highways  of  nature,  the  water- 
courses. The  men  of  the  ax  and  rifle  had  once 
more  broken  over  the  ultimate  barriers  assigned  to 
them;  by  the  men  of  book  and  gown.  That  myste- 
rious land  beyond  the  Mississippi  was  even  then 
receiving  more  and  more  of  that  adventurous  popu- 
lation that  the  statesmen  of  the  Louisiana  Pur- 
chase feared  would  leave  the  East  and  never  would 
return. 

The  fur  traders  of  St.  Louis  had  found  a  way 
to  reach  the  Eockies.  The  adventurous  West  was 
once  more  blazing  a  trail  for  the  commercial  and 


AGAINST  THE  WATERS  187 

industrial  West  to  follow.  This  was  the  second 
outward  setting  of  the  tide  of  west-bound  travel. 
We  had  used  up  all  our  down-stream  transportation, 
and  we  had  taken  over,  and  were  beginning  to  use, 
all  the  trails  that  led  into  the  West,  all  the  old 
French  trails,  the  old  Spanish  trails,  the  trails  that 
led  out  with  the  sun.  No  more  war  parties  now 
from  the  Great  Lakes  to  the  Ohio,  from  the  Great 
Lakes  to  the  Mississippi.  This  was  our  country. 
We  held  the  roads. 

But  now  there  were  happening  yet  other  strange 
and  startling  things.  In  1806,  at  Pittsburg,  some 
persons  built  the  first  steamboat  ever  seen  on  the 
Ohio  Eiver.  Its  first  trip  was  the  occasion  of  much 
rejoicing,  and  was  celebrated  with  fervor,  which, 
however,  must  have  received  a  certain  dampening 
by  the  outcome  of  the  experiment.  The  boat, 
crowded  with  excited  spectators,  ran  ver^^  hand- 
somely down-stream,  but  when  it  essayed  to  return 
the  current  proved  too  strong,  and  only  setting-poles 
and  rowboats  saved  the  day.  This,  then,  was  the 
precursor  of  an  aristocracy  in  transportation  before 
which  even  the  haughty  keel-boatmen  were  obliged 
to  abase  themselves.  In  1811  the  steamer  New 
Orleans  was  built  at  Pittsburg,  and  following  the 
guidance  of  "Mr.  Roosevelt  of  New  York,"  who  had 
previously  investigated  the  matter,  successfully  ran 


y^  '  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

the  riverway  to  New  Orleans.*  More  than  that,  she 
proved  able  to  return  up-stream.t  What  fate  then 
was  left  for  the  keel-boats? 

In  1819  a  steamboat  had  appeared  as  far  west  on 
the  Great  Lakes  as  Mackinaw.  In  1826  a  steamboat 
reached  Lalce  Michigan.  In  1828  the  first  steamboat 
of  the  American  Fur  Company  mastered  the  turbid 
flood  of  the  Missouri,  and  ascended  that  stream  as 
far  as  the  Great  Falls.J    In  1832  a  steamboat  ar- 


•Nlcholas  J.  Roosevelt,  a  great-uncle  of  President  Theodore 
Roosevelt,  was  one  of  the  owners  of  the  New  Orleans,  and  com- 
manded her  on  the  historic  voyage  down  the  Mississippi,  It  be- 
ing the  honeymoon  trip  for  Mr.  Roosevelt  and  his  bride.  Eventful 
enough  it  proved,  this  early  voyage.  As  though  in  protest  at 
this  invasion  of  its  sanctity,  the  wilderness  broke  out  in  cata- 
clysmic revolt.  The  great  New  Madrid  earthquake,  which  changed 
the  contour  of  hundreds  of  miles  of  Mississippi  valley  lands, 
greeted  the  vessel  upon  its  first  night  on  the  great  river.  "A 
strange,  weird,  thrilling  moan  or  high  keyed  sigh  swept  tremu- 
lously across  the  forest  and  cane-brakes,  ending  in  a  tremendous 
shriek,  which  again  dropped  to  a  long,  low  moan."  This  tre- 
mendous warning  was  followed  by  the  quaking,  the  upheaval 
and  the  subsidence  of  the  earth  in  such  fashion  that  the  course 
of  the  mighty  Mississippi  itself  was  for  the  time  reversed,  and 
^terward  forever  altered,  while  vast  forests  were  sunk  like 
so  many  ranks  of  toys.  A  great  tidal  wave  swept  the  New  Or- 
leans from  her  moorings,  and  Roosevelt  and  his  wife  barely  es- 
caped 'i'ith  life.  The  end  of  an  older  world  and  the  beginning  of 
$1  new  hv"^  indeed  come. 

This  firjt  river-steamer  was  116  feet  over  all,  with  twenty- 
feet  beam,  and  was  of  only  400  tons  burden;  strange  precursor 
of  the  swift  and  beautiful  river-racers  that  were  soon  to  follow, 
whose  keen,  trim  hulls  and  dazzlingly  ornamented  superstructures 
were  ere  long  to  house  another  phase  of  transportation. 

tNaturally,  the  down-stream  and  up-stream  eras  overlapped. 
Thus  the  cypress  rafting  of  the  Mississippi  Delta,  down  the  Sun- 
flower and  Yazoo  rivers  and  to  the  port  of  New  Orleans,  was  at 
its  height  in  the  years  1842-44.  The  rivers  will  ever  remain  th© 
great  downhill  highways  for  heavy  freight. 

tThe  Independence,  of  Louisville,  Ky.,  ascended  the  Missouri 
as  high  as  Booneville,  Mo.,  in  1814. 


AGAINST  THE  WATERS  189 

rived  at  the  city  of  Chicago.     The  West  was  now 
becoming  very  much  a  country  of  itself. 

The  curious  fact  continued  to  be  fact — that  it 
was  the  South  that  was  to  open,  the  Korth  and 
the  East  that  were  to  occupy.  Of  the  two  essential 
tools,  the  Southern  man  might  have  left  at  home  his 
ax,  the  Northern  man  his  rifle.  But  it  was  as  yet 
no  time  for  a  North  or  a  South.  The  Northerners 
and  the  Southerners  hoth  became  Westerners,  and 
if  the  ax  followed  the  rifle,  the  plow  as  swiftly  came 
behind  the  ax. 

Thanks  to  the  man  that  could  go  up-stream,  com 
was  no  longer  worth  one  hundred  and  sixty-five  dol- 
lars a  bushel  anywhere  in  America.  Corn  was  worth 
fifty  cents  a  bushel,  and  calico  was  worth  fifty  cents 
a  yard,  at  the  city  of  Kaskaskia,  in  the  heart  of  the 
Mississippi  valley.  Kaskaskia,  the  ancient,  was  queen 
of  the  down-stream  trade  in  her  day.  She  was  im- 
portant enough  to  command  a  visit  from  Goneral 
Lafayette,  early  in  this  century;  and  the  governor  of 
Illinois  addressed  the  distinguished  visitor  with  an 
oratory  not  without  interest,  since  it  was  alike  full 
of  bombast,  of  error,  of  truth,  and  of  prophecy : 

"Sir,  when  the  waters  of  the  Mississippi,  genera- 
tions hence,  are  traversed  by  carriers  of  commerce 
from  all  parts  of  the  world;  when  there  shall  live 
west  of  the  Father  of  Waters  a  people  greater  in 


190  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

niTmbers  than  the  present  population  of  the  United 
States;  when,  sir,  the  power  of  England,  always 
malevolent,  shall  have  waned  to  nothing,  and  the 
eagles  and  stars  of  our  national  aj^ns  be  recognized 
and  honored  in  all  parts  of  the  globe;  when  the  old 
men  and  the  children  of  to-day  shall  have  been 
gathered  to  their  fathers,  and  their  graves  have  been 
obliterated  from  the  face  of  the  earth,  Kaskaskia 
will  still  remember  and  honor  your  name.  Sir,  as 
the  commercial  queen  of  the  West,  she  welcomes 
you  to  a  place  within  her  portals.  So  long  as  Kas- 
kaskia  exists,  your  name  and  praises  shall  be  sung 
by  her." 

To-day  Kaskaskia  is  forgotten.  The  conditions 
that  produced  her  have  long  since  disappeared. 
The  waters,  in  pity,  have  literally  washed  her  away 
and  buried  her  far  in  the  southern  sea.  Yet  Kas- 
kaskia  serves  admirably  as  a  measuring  point  for 
the  West  of  that  day.  She  stood  at  the  edge  of 
civilization  on  the  one  hand,  of  barbarism  on  the 
other.  Beyond  her  lay  a  land  as  unknown  as  the 
surface  of  the  moon,  a  land  that  offered  alike 
temptation  and  promise.  Calico  was  worth  fifty 
cents  a  yard  at  Kaskaskia;  it  was  worth  three  dollars 
a  yard  in  Santa  Fe.  A  beaver  skin  was  worth  three 
dollars  in  New  York;  it  was  worth  fifty  cents  at 
the  head  of  the  Missouri. 


AGAINST  THE  WATERS  191 

There  you  have  the  problems  of  the  men  of  1810, 
and  that,  in  a  nutshell,  is  the  West  of  1810,  1820, 
1830.  The  problem  was  then,  as  now,  how  to  trans- 
port a  finished  product  into  a  new  country,  a  raw 
product  back  into  an  old  country,  and  a  population 
between  the  two  countries.  There  sprang  up  then, 
in  this  second  era  of  American  transportation,  that 
mighty  commerce  of  the  prairies,  which,  carried  on 
under  the  name  of  trade,  furnished  one  of  the  boldest 
commercial  romances  of  the  earth.  Fostered  by  mer- 
chants, it  was  captained  and  carried  on  by  heroes,  and 
was  dependent  upon  a  daily  heroism  such  as  com- 
merce has  never  seen  anywhere  except  in  the  Ameri- 
can West.  The  Kit  Carsons  now  took  the  place  of 
the  Simon  Kentons,  the  Bill  Williamses,  of  the  Daniel 
Boones.  The  Western  scout,  the  trapper,  the  hunter, 
wild  and  solitary  figures,  took  prominent  place  on  tlie 
nation's  canvas. 

This  Western  commerce,  the  wagon  freighting, 
steamboating,  and  packing,  of  the  first  half  of  this 
century,  was  to  run  in  three  great  channels,  each 
distinct  from  the  other.  First  there  was  the  fur 
trade,  whose  birth  was  in  the  North.  Next  there 
was  the  trade  of  mercantile  ventures  to  the  far 
Southwest.  Lastly  there  was  to  grow  up  the  freight- 
ing trade  to  the  mining  regions  of  the  West.     The 


192  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

cattle-growdng,  fanning,  or  comlmercial  West  of 
to-day  was  still  a  thing  undreamed. 

In  ever}^  one  of  these  three  great  lines  of  activity 
we  may  still  note  what  we  may  call  the  curiously 
individual  quality  of  the  West.  The  conditions  of 
life,  of  trade,  of  any  endurance  on  the  soil,  made 
heavy  demands  upon  the  physical  man.  There  must, 
above  all  things,  be  strength,  hardihood,  courage. 
There  were  great  companies  in  commerce,  it  is  true, 
but  there  were  no  great  corporations  to  safeguard 
the  persons  of  those  transported.  Each  man  must 
^'^take  care  of  himself,"  as  the  peculiar  and  significant 
phrase  went.  "Good-by;  take  care  of  yourself,^'  was 
the  last  word  for  the  man  departing  to  the  West.* 

The  strong  legs  of  himself  and  his  horse,  the  strong 


*As  witness  the  following  from  the  record  of  an  early  prairio 
journey:  "Our  route  lay  through  all  that  vast  extent  of  country 
then  known  as  Dakota,  including  the  territories,  since  formed, 
of  Montana,  Wyoming,  and  Idaho,  and  a  portion  left,  still  bear- 
ing the  original  name.  The  greater  part  of  the  distance  had 
never  been  traveled,  and  we  were  obliged  to  pick  our  way  as 
best  we  could.  There  was  not  evejn  an  Indian  trail  to  guide  us. 
We  were  twenty  days  in  crossing  tihe  state  of  Minnesota  to  Fort 
Abercrombie,  on  the  Red  River  of  the  North,  at  that  time  the 
last  outpost  of  civilization.  Remaining  there  a  few  days  for 
repairs,  we  resumed  our  journey  early  in  July  over  the  trackless 
plains,  certain  of  our  point  of  destination,  but  uncertain  as  to 
the  distance  between  us  and  it.  the  time  to  be  consumed  in  get- 
ting there,  and  all  the  diflaculties  of  the  long  and  tedious  travel. 
Conscious  of  our  exposure  to  attacks  from  savages,  we  were  on 
the  lookout  every  moment  A  trip  that  is  now  completed  in 
five  days  and  is  continuously  a  pleasure-trip  consumed  five 
months  of  time,  every  moment  filled  with  car©  and  apxiety."-^ 
(N.    P.    Langford.) 


AGAINST  THE  WATERS  193 

arms  of  himself  and  his  fellow  laborers,  these  must 
furnish  his  transportation.  The  muscles  tried  and 
proved,  the  mind  calm  amid  peril,  the  heart  un- 
wearied by  reverses  or  hardships — these  were  the 
items  of  the  capital,  universal  and  indispensable,  of 
the  West.  We  may  trace  here  the  development  of 
a  type  as  surely  as  we  may  by  reading  the  storied 
rocks  of  geology.  This  time  of  boat  and  horse,  of 
pack  and  cordelle  and  travois,  of  strenuous  personal 
effort,  of  individual  initiative,  left  its  imprint  for- 
ever and  indelibly  on  the  character  of  the  Ameri- 
can, and  made  him  what  he  is  to-day  among  the 
nations  of  the  globe. 

There  was  still  a  West  when  Kaskaskia  was  queen. 
Major  Long's  expedition  up  the  Platte  brought  back 
the  "important  fact"  that  the  "whole  division  of 
North  America  drained  by  the  Missouri  and  the 
Platte,  and  their  tributaries  between  the  meridians 
of  the  mouth  of  the  Platte  and  the  Rockies,  is  almost 
entirely  unfit  for  cultivation,  and  therefore  unin- 
habitable for  an  agricultural  people."  There  are 
many  thousands  of  farmers  to-day  who  can  not  quite 
agree  with  Major  Long's  dictum,  but  in  that  day 
the  dictum  wae  accepted  carelessly  or  eagerly.  No 
one  west  of  the  Mississippi  yet  cared  for  farms. 
There  were  swifter  ways  to  wealth  than  farming, 
and  the  wild  men  of  the  West  of  that  day  had  only 


194  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

scorn  and  distrust  for  the  whole  theory  of  agricul- 
ture. 

'^As  soon  as  you  thrust  the  plow  into  the  earth/' 
said  one  adventurer  who  had  left  the  East  for 
the  wilder  lands  of  the  West,  "it  teems  with  worms 
and  useless  weeds.  Agriculture  increases  popu- 
lation to  an  unnatural  extent."  For  such  men 
there  was  still  a  vast  world  without  weeds,  where 
the  soil  was  virgin,  where  one  might  be  uncrowded 
by  the  touch  of  home-building  man.  Let  the  farm- 
ers have  Ohio  and  Kentucky;  there  was  still  a  West. 

There  was,  in  the  first  place,  then,  the  West  of 
the  fur  trade,  the  trade  that  had  come  down  through 
so  many  vicissitudes,  legacy  of  Louis  the  Grand 
Monarch  and  his  covetous  intriguere.  For  gen- 
erations the  coureurs  du  hois,  wild  peddlers  of  the 
woods,  had  traced  the  ultimate  waterways  of  the 
far  Northwest,  sometimes  absent  for  one,  two,  or 
more  years  from  the  place  they  loosely  called  home, 
sometimes  never  returning  at  all  from  the  savagery 
that  offered  so  great  a  fascination,  often  too  strong 
even  for  men  reared  in  the  lap  of  lumry  and 
refinement. 

Steam  was  bu/t  an  infant,  after  all,  in  spite  of  the 
little  steamboat  triumphs  of  the  day.  The  waters 
offered  roadway  for  the  steamboats,  and  water 
transportation  by  steam   was  much  less  expensive 


AGAINST  THE  ^YATERS      195 

than  transportation  by  railway ;  but  the  head  of  navi- 
gation by  steamboats  was  only  the  point  of  departure 
of  a  wilder  and  cruder  transportation.  Beyond  the 
natural  reach  of  the  canot  du  Nord,  the  lesser  craft 
of  the  natives,  the  smaller  birch-barks,  took  up  the 
trail,  and  passed  even  farther  up  into  the  unknown 
c-ountries;  and  beyond  the  head  of  the  ultimate 
thread  of  the  waters  the  pack-horse,  or  the  travois 
and  the  dog,  took  up  the  burden  of  the  day,  until  the 
trails  were  lost  in  the  forest,  and  the  traveler  carried 
his  pack  on  his  own  back.* 

It  is  a  curious  fact,  and  one  perhaps  not  commonly 
known,  that  the  Indian  sign  of  the  ^^cutthroat"  (the 
forefinger  drawn  across  the  throat),  which  is  the  uni- 
versal name  for  ^'^Sioux"  among  all  other  American 
tribes,  is,  in  all  likelihood,  a  misnomer.  The  Sioux 
were  dog  Indians  of  old,  before  they  got  horses  from 
the  West,  and  they  worked  the  dog  as  a  draft  animal, 
with  a  collar  about  the  neck,  just  as  it  is  now  worked 
over  much  of  the  sub-arctic  country.  The  sign  of 
the  two  fingers  across  the  neck  once  indicated  "dog^' 
as  plainly  as  the  single  finger  across  the  neck  now 


*The  pack  of  the  "timber-cruiser,"  or  "land-looker,"  of  the 
lumber  trade  is  made  of  stout  canvas,  with  shoulder-straps.  When 
the  cruiser  starts  out  on  his  lonely  woods  voyage,  his  pack, 
with  its  contents  of  tent,  blankets,  flour,  and  bacon,  weighs  about 
eighty  pounds,  exclusive  of  the  rifle  and  ax  which  he  also  carries. 
He  may  be  absent  for  a  month  at  a  time,  and  he  crosses  country 
impenetrable  to  any  but  the  footman. 


196  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

signifies  "cuttliroat."  Not  only  did  the  native  and 
early  wliite  wanderers  of  the  wilderness  use  the  dog 
as  a  draft  animal,  hut  they  packed  him  as  they  later 
packed  the  horse  in  the  wagonless  lands  of  the 
West 

This  fact  is  still  qnite  within  the  memory  or  prac- 
tice of  man.  A  dog  could  draw  more  on  a  travois, 
or  pole-frame,  than  he  could  carry  on  his  hack. 
It  was  not  unusual  to  see  a  great  oopper  kettle  lashed 
to  the  poles  of  a  travois  drawn  hy  a  dog,  and  in  the 
kettle  piled  indiscriminately  moccasins,  hahies,  pup- 
pies, and  other  loose  personal  property.  Hitched  to 
the  proper  sledge,  six  dogs  could  draw  a  thousand 
pounds  over  the  snow.  Thus  ran  the  earliest  stage- 
coach in  the  West 

The  great  canoe,  the  travois,  and  the  sledge  were 
inventions  of  the  early  French  fur  trade,  hut  we 
nsed  them  as  we  needed  them  when  the  fur  country 
became  our  own.  France  ceded  her  trading  posts 
to  England  in  1763,  and  England  transferred  them 
to  us  in  1796.  The  great  iTorthwest  Company  had 
hy  1783  extended  its  posts  all  along  our  Northern 
border,  not  being  too  particular  about  crossing  the 
line;  but  by  1812  we  had  made  our  authority  felt, 
and  by  1816  had  passed  a  law  excluding  foreigners 
from  our  fur  trade.    The  old  Northwest  Company 


AGAINST  THE  WATERS  197 

handed  over  to  the  younger  American  Fur  Company 
all  the  posts  found  to  be  within  our  marches.  We 
heard,  for  the  time,  of  the  Pacific  Fur  Company,  the 
Rocky  Mountain  Fur  Company,  the  Missouri  Fur 
Company,  of  the  "free  trappers"  and  '^free  traders" 
of  the  West. 

It  matters  not  what  form  or  name  that  trade  as- 
sumed. The  important  fact  is  that  we  now,  by  means 
of  this  wild  commerce,  began  to  hear  of  such  lands 
as  Oregon,  of  that  region  now  known  as  Montana, 
of  a  thousand  remote  and  unmapped  localities,  which 
might  ultimately  prove  inhabitable.  Summer  or 
winter,  over  all  these  new  lands  the  wild  new  travel 
of  the  West  went  on,  and  after  fashions  it  determined 
for  itself.  Thus,  in  the  country  of  the  Missouri,  the 
left  fork  of  our  great  American  waterway,  there  was 
no  birch-bark  for  the  making  of  the  canot  du  Nord. 
Hence  the  keel-boat,  the  setting  pole  and  the  sweep, 
the  sail  and  the  tracking  line.  Yet  the  great  craft, 
like  the  Northern  birch-bark  ship,  must  at  last  reach 
a  land  of  waterways  too  small  for  its  bulk.  The  Mon- 
tana adventurers  had  not  birch-bark,  but  they  had  the 
buffalo.  They  made  ^"bull  boats"  out  of  the  sun- 
dried  hides,  and  these  rude  craft  served  to  carry 
many  a  million  dollars'  worth  of  furs  over  gaps  that 
would  have  seemed  full  long  to  a  walking  man. 


198  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

The  outl3aiig  posts*  at  the  head  of  the  far-ofc 
streams  received  their  supplies  from  the  annual 
caravan  of  keel-boats,  or  the  later  great  Mackinaw 
boats,  square-sterned  craft  fifty  feet  long,  of  twelve- 
foot  beam,  of  four-foot  freeboard,  and  a  carrying 
capacity   of   fourteen   tons.f     Each   of   these  boats 


*There  were  in  all  scores  of  these  rude  trading  posts,  whose  his- 
tory is  in  some  cases  obscure.  Fort  Union  was  one  of  the  famous 
early  stations,  and  was  built  in  182S,  near  the  mouth  of  the 
Yellowstone,  being  known  for  the  first  year  cr  so  as  Fort  Floyd. 
Kipp's  Fort,  or  Fort  Piegan,  was  erected  in  1831  at  the  mouth  of 
Marias  River.  Campbell  and  Sublette's  Fort,  or  Fort  William,  was 
built  on  the  Missouri,  at  or  near  the  site  of  the  later  Fort  Buford, 
in  1833.  Fort  F.  A.  Chardon  was  built  in  1842  or  1843  at  the  mouth 
of  the  Judith;  it  was  removed  to  the  north  bank  of  the  Missouri 
in  1844  or  1845,  and  was  rechristened  Fort  Lewis,  in  honor  of 
Meriwether  Lewis.  In  1846  this  post  was  torn  down  and  rebuilt 
on  the  south  bank  of  the  Missouri,  somewhat  farther  dov/n  stream. 
In  1850  it  was  wholly  rebuilt,  this  time  of  adobe  and  not  of  logs, 
and  this  was  the  beginning  of  the  famous  Old  Fort  Benton,  so 
long  associated  vrith  all  early  memories  of  the  upper  Missouri. 
Fort  Van  Buren  was  on  the  right  bank  of  the  Yellowstone,  and 
was  built  probably  in  1835,  some  say  in  1832.  Fort  Cass  was 
erected  in  1832,  on  the  Yellowstone,  near  the  mouth  of  the  Bighorn. 
Fort  Alexander,  also  on  the  Yellowstone,  was  built  about  1840, 
possibly  in  1839.  It  was  most  flourishing  in  1849,  and  was  aban- 
doned in  1850.  It  was  located  opposite  the  mouth  of  the  Rosebud. 
Fort  Sarpy  was  on  the  right  bank  of  the  Yellowstone,  twenty-five 
miles  above  the  mouth  of  the  Bighorn.  It  was  the  last  of  the 
important  posts  to  be  built  (probably  about  1850),  and  was  aban- 
doned about  1859.  (v.  Chittenden,  "American  Fur  Trade;"  who, 
however,  differs  from  others  in  certain  dates;  as  v.  Rocky  Moun- 
tain Magazine.) 

t"The  principal  articles  of  trade  were  alcohol,  blankets,  blue 
and  "scarlet  cloth,  sheeting  (domestics),  ticking,  tobacco,  knives, 
fire-steels,  arrow-points,  files,  brass  wire  (different  sizes),  beads, 
brass  tacks,  leather  belts  (from  four  to  ten  inches  wide),  silver 
ornaments  for  hair,  shells,  axes,  hatchets.  Alcohol  was  the 
principal  article  of  trade,  until  after  the  passing  of  an  act  of  Con- 
gress (June  30,  1843)  prohibiting  it  under  severe  penalties.  .  .  . 
There  was  a  bitter  rivalry  between  the  Hudson  Bay  Company  ani 
the  American  Fur  Company.    The  Hudson  Bay  Company  citen  sei^t 


AGAINST  THE  WATERS  199 

required  a  crew  of  twelve  men,  and  it  took  six  months 
of  the  hardest  lahor  towing,  tracking,  poling,  and 
rowing  to  get  the  clumsy  craft  from  St.  Louis  to 
such  a  spot  as  old  Fort  Benton.  The  run  down- 
Btream  required  only  about  thirty  days,  and  it  was 
•commonly  believed  that  the  square  stern  of  the 
Mackinaw  caused  it  to  run  faster  than  the  current 
in  taking  the  rapids  of  the  Missouri. 

The  labor  of  this  primitive  transportation,  this 
wading  for  hundreds  of  miles  each  spring  against  an 
icy  torrent,  was  not  work  for  children.  It  was  not 
children  that  this  wild  trade  begot,  but  men.  The 
Titanic  region  demanded  Titanic  methods.  It  made 
its  own  laws  and  customs,  struck  out  for  itself  new 
methods.  The  world  beyond  never  asked  the  world 
behind  what  or  how  to  do.  This  vast,  rude  land 
asked  no  other  country  how  to  perform  the  tasks 
that  lay  before  it.     Of  the  wildness  and  rudeness  of 


men  to  induce  fhe  confederated  Blackfeet  to  go  north  and  trade, 
and  the  Indians  said  they  were  offered  large  rewards  to  kill  all 
the  traders  on  the  Missouri  River  and  destroy  the  trading-posts. 
.  .  .  When  the  Blackfeet  commenced  to  trade  on  the  Missouri, 
they  did  not  have  any  robes  to  trade;  they  saved  only  what  they 
•wanted  for  their  own  use.  The  Hudson  Bay  Company  only  wanted 
furs  of  different  kinds.  The  first  season  the  Americans  did  not 
get  any  robes,  but  traded  for  a  large  quantity  of  beaver,  otter, 
marten,  etc.  They  told  the  Indians  they  wanted  robes,  and  from 
that  time  the  Indians  made  them  their  prrincipal  article  of  trade. 
The  company  did  not  trade  provisions  of  any  kind  to  the  Indians, 
but  when  an  Indian  made  a  good  trade  he  would  get  a  spoonful 
of  sugar,  which  he  would  put  in  his  medicine-bag  to  use  in  sick- 
ness when  all  other  remedies  failed."  ("The  Rocky  Mountain 
Magazine.") 


200  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

this  new  world  there  could  be  no  question,  but  its 
savagery  was  met  by  a  savage  determination  more 
fearless  and  indomitable  than  its  own. 

The  mountain  trapper,  the  prairie  freighter  and 
trader,  the  California  miner  were  great  men,  tremen- 
dous men,  fit  successors  of  those  that  fought  their  way 
across  the  Alleghanies.  The  fur  trade  was  practically 
over  by  1834,  and  the  Santa  Fe  trade  lasted,  roughly 
speaking,  only  about  twenty  years,  being  practically 
terminated  in  1843  by  the  edict  of  Santa  Anna. 
These  difficulties  in  our  Western  commerce  all  came 
to  an  end  with  the  Mexican  War,  and  with  the 
second  and  third  great  additions  to  our  Western 
territory,  which  gave  us  the  region  on  the  south  as- 
well  as  the  north,  from  ocean  to  ocean. 

This  time  was  one  of  great  activity  in  all  the 
West,  and  the  restless  population  that  had  gained 
a  taste  of  the  adventurous  life  of  that  region  was 
soon  to  have  yet  greater  opportunities.  The  dis^ 
covery  of  gold  in  California  unsettled  not  only  all 
the  West,  but  all  America,  and  hastened  immeasur- 
ably the  development  of  the  West,  not  merely  as  ta 
the  Pacific  coast,  but  also  in  regard  to  the  mountain 
regions  between  the  great  plains  and  the  coast. 

The  turbulent  population  of  the  mines  spread  from 
California  into  every  accessible  portion  of  the  Rock- 
ies.   The  trapper  and  hunter  of  the  remotest  range 


AGAINST  THE  WATERS  201 

found  that  he  had  a  companion  in  the  wilderness, 
the  prospector,  as  hardy  as  himself,  and  animated 
by  a  feverish  energy  that  rendered  him  even  more 
determined  and  unconquerable  than  himself.  Love 
of  excitement  and  change  invited  the  trapper  to  the 
mountains.  It  was  love  of  gain  that  drove  the 
prospector  thither.  Commercial  man  was  to  do  in 
a  short  time  what  the  adventurer  would  never  have 
done.  California,  Oregon,  Idaho,  Montana — ^how 
swiftly,  when  we  come  to  counting  decades,  these 
names  followed  upon  those  of  Kentucky,  Tennessee, 
and  Ohio! 

In  the  new  demands  for  locomotion  and  transpor- 
tation, which  now  arose  from  these  new  armies  of 
moving  men,  the  best  thinkers  of  the  country  could 
for  a  long  time  suggest  nothing  better  than  the  sea 
and  the  rivers  as  the  great  highways.  Steamboats 
ran  regularly  on  every  Western  river  where  such 
navigation  was  possible.  Yet  at  the  head  of  the 
waters  there  still  existed,  and  in  greater  degree  than 
ever  before,  long  gaps  between  the  abodes  of  the 
mountain  population  and  their  bases  of  supplies. 
The  demand,  moreover,  was  for  transportation  of 
heavy  goods. 

The  trapper  that  started  out  into  the  mountains 
might  take  only  tvro  or  three  extra  horses.  He  did 
not  use  more  than  half    a    dozen  traps    in    those 


202  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

days,  and  connted  always  upon  living  upon  wild 
game.  Tlie  new  population  of  the  mining  camps, 
wluch  spread  all  through  the  miountains  with  in- 
credihle  rapidity,  was  made  up  of  an  entirely  different 
class  of  men,  and  was  surrounded  hy  an  environment 
less  bountiful.  They  did  not  come  to  hunt,  but  to 
dig  or  to  riot;  and  they  must  be  fed.  At  this  time 
the  necessity  brought  forth  the  man.  It  was  the 
American  packer  that  now  saved  the  day. 

The  pack-horse  idea  is  as  old  as  America,  but  in  its 
f>erfection  it  is  the  product  of  the  Spanish  South- 
vest.  We  read  in  history  of  the  progresses  of  royal 
personages  in  ancient  times  in  the  Old  World,  where 
frequent  mention  is  made  of  the  number  of  sumpter- 
mules  that  attended  the  caravans  in  those  roadless 
days.  The  sumpter-mule  was  the  forerunner  of  the 
pack-mule,  though  it  is  to  be  doubted  if  any  servant 
of  an  old-time  king  ever  learned  to  do  such  impos- 
sible things  with  the  sumpter-mule  as  the  American 
packer  did  as  a  matter  of  course  with  his  beasts  of 
burden. 

Gradual  changes  were  taking  place,  about  midway 
of  the  last  century,  in  the  characteristics  of 
Western  commerce.  The  trapper  and  the  hunter 
had  trafficked  as  individuals.  The  Santa  Fe  trade 
was  in  control  of  men  who  remained  at  home  and 
sent  their  goods  into  another  country,  just  as  did 


AGAIj^ST  the  waters  203 

the  early  Phenician  merchants.  In  the  trade  of  the 
mining  towns,  the  merchant  had  come  to  he  a  resi- 
dent and  not  a  non-resident,  and  the  transportation 
of  his  supplies  was  in  the  hands  of  companies  or 
individuals  who  had  not  any  ownership  in  the  goods 
they  handled. 

The  greatest  drama  of  the  common  carrier  had 
its  scene  in  the  Rocky  Mountains.  The  price  of 
staples  in  any  mountain  town  was  something  that 
not  even  the  merchant  himself  could  predict  in 
advance,  dependent  as  it  was  upon  the  thousand 
contingencies  of  freighting  in  rude  regions  and 
among  hostile  tribes.  Prices  that  would  stagger 
the  consumer  of  to-day  were  frequently  paid  for  the 
simplest  necessaries.  As  in  the  days  of  the  trappers' 
rendezvous  everything  was  sold  by  the  pint,  so  now 
the  standard  of  measure  became  the  pound.  A  com- 
mon price  for  sugar  in  a  mining  camp  was  thirty- 
five  to  fifty  cents  a  pound.  In  the  San  Juan  mining 
camps,  as  late  as  1875,  potatoes  sold  for  twenty-five 
cents  a  pound.  A  mule  or  burro  would  earn  its 
own  cost  in  a  single  trip,  for  there  were  occasions 
under  certain  conditions,  such  as  the  packing  from 
Florence  into  the  more  remote  placer  districts,  when 
the  pack-master  charged  as  much  as  eighty  cents  a 
pound  from  the  supply  point  to  the  camps. 

N'ew  cities  began  to  be  heard  of  in  this  mountain 


204  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

trade,  just  as  there  had  been  in  the  wagon  days  of  the 
overland  trail  to  Santa  Fe:  Pueblo,  Canon  City, 
Denver.  All  were  outfitting  and  freighting  points  in 
turn,  while  from  the  other  side  of  the  range  there 
were  as  many  towns, — ^Florence,  Walla  Walla,  Port- 
land,— which  sent  out  the  long  trains  of  laden  mules 
and  horses.  The  pack-train  was  as  common  and  as 
useful  as  the  stage-line  in  developing  the  Black  Hills 
region,  and  many  another  still  less  accessible. 

Commonly  a  horse  or  a  mule  would  carry  two 
hundred  to  three  hundred  pounds  of  freight,  a  burro 
one  hundred  to  two  hundred,  and  the  price  for 
packing  averaged  somewhere  about  five  to  ten  cents 
a  pound  per  hundred  miles  of  distance,  often  very 
much  more.  It  was  astonishing  what  flexibility  this 
old  system  of  carriage  had.  A  good  pack-master 
would  undertake  to  transport  any  article  that  might 
be  demanded  at  the  end  of  his  route.  It  is  well 
known  that  much  heavy  mining  machinery  was 
packed  into  the  mountains;  but  this  was  not  really 
very  wonderful,  for  such  machinery  was  made  pur- 
posely in  suitable  sections  for  such  transport. 

Somewhat  more  difficult  were  other  articles,  such  as 
cook-stoves  and  the  like,  shipped  not  ^Tmocked  down." 
A  piano  was  one  of  the  odd  articles  that  went  into 
the  earliest  of  the  Coeur  d'Alene  mining  camps  more 
than  a  score  of  years  ago.     It  was  packed  on  four 


AGAINST  THE  WATERS  205 

mules,  the  piano  resting  on  a  sling  of  poles,  whicli 
virtually  bound  the  mules  together  a^  well  as  gave 
support  to  their  burden,  two  mules  going  in  front 
and  two  behind.  When  the  animals  became  too 
tired  to  climb  farther,  the  weight  was  temporarily 
lightened  by  resting  the  piano  on  forked  sticks 
thrust  up  beneath  the  load.  The  strange  package 
was  taken  through  in  safety,  though  at  a  cost  of 
about  a  thousand  dollars.  All  sorts  of  articles  were 
shipped  in  the  same  fashion,  and  packages*  of  glass- 
ware, cases  of  eggs,  and  many  such  goods  cus- 
tomarily made  the  long  and  rough  journeys  in 
safety. 

The  charges  were  made  on  the  weight  of  the 
package,  including  the  case  or  cover  in  which  it 
was  shipped,  and  it  was  poor  policy  on  the  part 
of  the  shipper  to  pa<jk  his  goods  too  flimsily, 
for  the  grip  of  the  ^^diamond  hitch"  was  never 
a  sparer  of  things  beneath  it.  The  hardest  ar- 
ticle to  paxik  in  the  mountains  was  quicksilver. 
This  commodity  was  shipped  in  iron  flasks,  and  the 
first  thing  the  packer  did  was  to  unscrew  the  tops 
of  these  flasks  and  fill  the  remaining  interior  space 
completely  with  water,  in  order  to  prevent  the  heavy 
blow  of  the  shifting  liquid  contents,  which  was  dis- 
tressing to  the  pack-horse.  A  flask  of  quicksilver 
weighed  about  ninety  pounds,  and  it  was  customary 


206  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

to  pack  two  flasks  on  each  side  of  a  horse  or  mule, 
each  pair  of  flasks  being  fastened  in  a  board  frame, 
which  gave  facility  for  lashing  all  fast,  and  pre- 
vented the  wear  of  the  condensed  weight  against  the 
back  of  the  animal. 

Wood,  hay,  boxes,  trunks,  indeed  almost  anything 
that  could  be  imagined,  were  common  articles  of 
transport  in  the  mountains,  and  it  was  at  times  a  bit 
odd  to  see  a  little  burro  almost  hidden  under  a  couple 
of  Saratoga  trunks  so  big  that  he  could  neither  lie 
down  nor  roll  over  under  them.  The  pack-train  might 
comprise  a  score  or  a  hundred  horses,  and  the  conduct 
of  such  a  train  was  no  small  matter  of  skill  and  gen- 
eralship. 

Oxen  were  often  used  as  pack-animals,  the  burden 
frequently  being  lashed  to  the  horns.  An  ox  could 
csLTTj  a  fifty-pound  sack  of  flour  on  top  of  its  head, 
though  special  saddles  were  sometimes  used  for  ox- 
packing.  On  the  overland  trail  to  California,  cows 
were  sometimes  employed  as  pack-animals,  and  were 
often  used  in  harness  as  draft-animals.  Every  one 
knows  the  story  of  the  carts  and  hand-barrows  of 
the  great  Mormon  emigration.  Under  the  old 
Western  conditions  of  transportation,  is  it  any  won- 
der that  horse-stealing  was  regarded  as  the  worst 
crime  of  the  calendar? 

The  transportation   of   paddle    and    portage,   of 


AGAINST  THE  WATERS  207 

sawbuck  saddle  and  panniers,  however,  could  not 
forever  serve  except  in  the  roughest  of  the  mountain 
chains.  The  demand  for  wheeled  vehicles  v/as 
urgent,  and  the  supply  for  that  demand  was  forth- 
coming in  so  far  as  human  ingenuity  and  resource- 
fulness could  meet  it.  There  arose  masters  in 
transportation,  common  carriers  of  world-wide  fame. 
The  pony  express  was  a  wonderful  thing  in  its  way, 
and  some  of  the  old-time  stage-lines  that  first 
began  to  run  out  into  the  West  were  hardly  less 
wonderful.  For  instance,  there  was  an  overland 
stage-line  that  ran  from  Atchison,  on  the  Missouri 
Eiver,  across  the  plains,  and  up  into  Montana  by  way 
of  Denver  and  Salt  Lake  City.  It  made  the  trip 
from  Atchison  to  Helena,  nearly  two  thousand  milrs, 
in   twenty- two    days.*      Down    the    old    waterways 


*Ia  the  "Montana  Post"  for  February  11,  1865,  there  appear- i 
the  foUowing  advertisement: 

OVERLAND 

STAGE    LINE. 

Ben.  Holladay,  Proprietor. 

Carrying    the   Great    Through    Mail   between 

the  Atlantic  and  Pacific   States. 


This  line  is  now  running  in  connection  with  the  daily  coachei 

between 

Atchison,  Kansas  &  Placerville,  Cal. 

Tri-weekly  Coaches  between  Salt  Lake  City  and  Walla  Walla, 

via  Boise  City,  West  Bannack,   and 

Tri-weekly  Coaches  between 

Great  Salt  Lake  City  and  Virginia  City,    Montana, 

via  Bannack  City. 

Carrying  the  U.  S.  Mail, 

Passengers,  and  Express  Matter. 


308  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

from  the  placers  of  Alder  Gulch  to  the  same  town  of 
Atchison  was  a  distance  of  about  three  thousand 
miles.  The  stage-line  began  to  shorten  distances 
and  lay  out  straight  lines,  so  that  now  the  West 
was  visited  by  vast  numbers  of  sight-seers,  tourists, 
investigators,  and  the  like,  in  addition  to  the  actual 
population  of  the  land,  the  men  that  called  the  West 
their  hom.e. 

We  should  find  it  difficult  now  to  return  to  stage- 
coach travel,  yet  in  its  time  it  was  thought  luxurious. 
One  of  the  United  States  bank  examiners  of  that 
time,  whose  duties  took  him  iuto  the  Western  re- 
gions, in  the  course  of  fourteen  years  traveled  over 
seventy-four  thousand  miles  by  stage-coach  alone. 
It  is  the  strange  part  of  this  vivid  history  of  the 
West  that  many  men  who  were  prominent  and  active 
in  its  wildest  and  crudest  days  are  living  to-day,  fully 
adapted  to  the  present  conditions,  and  apparently 
almost  forgetful  that  there  ever  was  a  different  time. 
Thus  one  of  the  more  prominent  early  wagon-train 


Also  tri-weekly  coaches  between  Virginia  City  and  Bannack  City. 
Coaches   for    Great   Salt    Lake    City    and    Bannack   City    leave 
Virginia  City  every 

Tuesday,  Thursday,  and  Sunday  Morning, 

connecting  at  Fort  Hall;    and  coaches  to  Boise  and  Walla  Walla, 

and  at  Great  Salt  Lake  City,  with  the  daily  lines  to  the 

Atlantic  States,  Nevada,   and  California. 

Express  matter  carried  in  charge  of  competent  and  trustworthy 

messengers. 

For  further  particulars  apply  at  office. 
Nat  stein,  Agent, 
Virginia  City,  Montana  Territory. 


AGAINST  THE  WATERS  209 

freighters  of  Montana,  now  a  prosperous  banker  of 
his  state,  gives  a  brief  description  of  the  old-time 
industry,  which  is  interesting  because  at  first  hand. 
The  freighter-banker  goes  on  to  say : 

"The  wagons  were  large  prairie  schooners,  usually 
three  or  four  trailed  together,  pulled  by  sixteen  to 
twenty  head  of  the  largest  oxen  you  ever  saw.  It 
cost  one  cent  a  pound  per  one  hundred  miles  to 
transport  freight.  Sometimes,  of  course,  we  would 
get  five  times  this.  The  danger  was  from  Indians 
(Sioux  and  Blackfeet)  attacking  the  trains  and  the 
drivers.  The  herders  and  wagon  boss  went  armed. 
The  earliest  freighting  point  was  from  Fort  Benton, 
Montana,^  to  the  mines  in  the  Eockies.*  When  boats 
failed  to  reach  Benton,  owing  to  low  water,  then  the 
teams  went  below,  three  to  four  hundred  miles,  to 
haul  the  freight  up.  In  later  times  (after  the  Junc- 
tion of  the  Union  Pacific  and  Central  Pacific  rail- 


*A  large  advance  over  the  capabilities  of  the  old  Mackina\r 
boats  may  be  seen  recorded  In  the  log  of  a  Missouri  River 
steamboat: 

"P'ort  Benton,  July  14,  1866. 

"First  trip  of  steamer  Deer  Lodge,  Captain  Lawrence  Ohlman, 
Clerk  H.  A.   Dohrman,  Engineer  S.  G.  Hill. 

"Left  St.  Louis  March  20,  at  6^  o'clock  p.  m,,  for  Fort  Benton, 
lost  12  days  by  ice,  and  arrived  at  Fort  Union  May  1,  where  we 
laid  4  hours  and  then  started  on  our  way  up  the  river.  Reached 
Fort  Benton  May  18,  at  4%  p.  m.  Discharged  200  tons  of  freight, 
and  started  on  return  to  St,  Louis  May  21,  and  arrived  there  June 
3,  having  made  the  trip  down  in  13  days  and  15  hours. 

"Trip  No.  2.  Left  St.  Louis  for  Fort  Benton  Wednesday,  June 
6,  at  6%  p.  m.,  with  210  tons  of  freight,  60  tons  for  Randall,  Rice, 


210  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

ways)  we  transported  freiglit  from  Corinne,  UtaH. 
There  were  probably  one  million  dollars  invested  by 
individuals  and  companies  in  Montana.  The  largest 
companies  were  the  'Diamond  W  Transrportatinn 
Company,  established  by  Colonel  Charles  A.  Broad- 
water and  three  others,  and  I.  Gr.  Baker  &  Company. 
The  latter  company  was  owned  and  managed  by  the 
writer,  and  in  the  summer  of  1879  transported  over 
twenty  million  pounds  of  freight  on  wagons  for  the 
United  States  government,  Canadian  government, 
and  the  merchants  of  Montana." 

A  study  of  the  market  reports  of  the  old  "Montana 
Post/'  published  1864  to  1868,  affords  much  insight 
into  the  life  and  conditions  of  that  time.  Comment- 
ing upon  these  facts,  our  early  western  resident,  Mr. 
N.  P.  Langf'ord,  remarks : 

"The  high  prices  of  m'erchandise  in  Montana  were 
the  natural  outcome  of  great  cost  of  transportation, 
combined  with  large  profits,  owing  to  the  great  risks 


and  Sully,  150  tans  for  Benton.  Running  time  from  St.  Louis  to 
Fort  Sully  16  days;  to  Fort  Rice  21  days;  to  Fort  Union  27  days 
and  6  hours;  to  Milk  River  23i^  days;  to  the  mouth  of  Judith,  or 
Camp  Cook,  35  days  10  hours.  Discharged  147  tons  of  freight  and 
laid  there  12  hours,  and  started  again  for  Benton.  Passed  Drowned 
Man's  Rapids  in  2%  minutes  without  laying  a  line  or  working  a 
full  head  of  steam.  Laid  up  at  Eagle  Creek  3  hours,  and  arrived 
at  Fort  Benton  July  13,  at  4  p  m.  Time  from  St.  Louis  36  days 
and  21  hours. 

"The  round  trip  from  Benton  to  St.  Louis  in  53  days  and  12 
hours,  without  setting  a  spar  or  rubbing  the  bottom."  (The 
"Montana  Post.") 


AGAINST  THE  WATERS  211 

incurred  in  taking  goods  through  a  hostile  Indian 
country.  As  population  increased,  the  necessity  of 
procuring  from  the  states  a  sure  supply  of  the 
necessities  of  life  was  uppermost  in  the  minds  of 
the  people.  With  the  fortune  of  Midas,  they  feared 
soon  to  share  his  fate,  and  have  nothing  but  gold  to 
eat.  But  there  was  no  lack  of  adventurous  traders 
in  the  states,  who  were  ready  to  incur  the  risks 
incident  to  a  long  overland  journey,  whose  successful 
termination  was  certain  greatly  to  enrich  them.* 

"The  supplies  were  brought  into  the  mining  camps 
of  Montana  by  three  different  routes:  the  over- 
land rout€  from  Omaha  or  St.  Joseph,  Missouri,  by 
way  of  Denver  and  Salt  Lake,  a  distance  of  nineteen 
hundred  miles;  from  St.  Louis  by  way  of  the  Mis- 
souri river  to  Fort  Benton;  and  by  pack-train  from 
the  Pacific  slope,  starting  from  Portland  or  Walla 
Walla,  Oregon,  crossing  the  Coeur  d' Alenes  and  the 
main  ranges  of  the  Kockies,  and  coming  over  the 
Bitter  Root  valley. 

"The  larger  part  of  the  merchandise  brought  to 
Montana  came  by  the  first-named  route.     The  ve- 


*In  the  sixties  the  price  of  wheat  was  at  times  so  low  in  Iowa 
that  farmers  could  not  pay  their  taxes.  Many  men  engaged  in 
freig'.iting  flour  and  bacon  fr  \  Iowa  to  Denver,  Colorado,  via 
Council  Bluffs  and  the  route  up  the  Platte  valley,  then  a  part  of 
the  buffalo  range  and  a  favorite  hunting-ground  of  the  Sioux  and 
PaTvr.ees.  The  father  of  the  writer  made  such  a  trading-trip 
in  1860. 


212  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

hides  used  in  transportation  were,  for  the  most  part, 
what  were  known  as  ^Murphy  wagons' — vehicles  with 
large  wheels  and  strong  bodies,  capable  of  holding 
eight  thousand  pounds  of  general  merchandise,  and 
drawn  by  five  or  six  yoke  of  oxen,  or  by  as  many 
spans  of  mules.  During  the  rainy  season,  and  for 
many  weeks  after  a  storm,  it  was  frequently  the  case 
that  not  more  than  five  miles  a  day  of  progress  could 
be  made  with  such  a  wagon  train  over  the  alkali 
plains  or  along  the  valley  of  such  a  stream  as  Bitter 
Creek.  An  average  journey  was  about  one  hundred 
miles  a  week,  and  thus  an  entire  season,  commenc- 
ing at  the  time  when  the  grass  of  the  plains  was 
sufficiently  grown  to  furnish  food  for  oxen  and 
mules,  and  lasting  from  eighteen  to  twenty  weeks, 
was  consumed  in  making  the  journey. 

"One  who  has  never  seen  the  plains,  rivers,  rocks, 
canons,  and  mountains  of  the  portion  of  the  country 
traversed  by  these  caravans,  can  form  but  a  faint 
idea  from  any  description  given  of  them  of  the  in- 
numerable and  formidable  difficulties  with  which 
every  mile  of  this  weary  march  was  encumbered. 
History  has  assigned  a  foremost  place  among  its 
glorified  deeds  to  the  passage  of  the  Alps  by  Napo- 
leon, and  to  the  long  and  discouraging  march  of  the 
French  army  under  the  same  great  conqueror  to 
Kussia.     If  it  be  not  invidious  to  compare    small 


AGAINST  THE  WATERS  21;^ 

things  with  great,  we  may  assuredly  claim  for  these 
early  pioneers  greater  conquests  over  nature  than 
were  made  b}'"  either  of  the  great  military  expeditions 
of  Napoleon.  A  successful  completion  of  the  journey 
was  simply  an  escape  from  death." 

The  nature  of  the  transportation  of  passengers 
over  the  overland  route  may  be  inferred  from  a  trip 
once  made  by  the  above  writer  by  stage  from 
Atchison,  on  the  Missouri  River,  to  Helena,  Montana, 
which  is  thus  described : 

"The  journey  required  thirty-one  days  of  con- 
tinuous staging,  and  was  prolonged  by  delays  occa- 
sioned by  the  incursions  of  the  hostile  Sioux,  who 
had  killed  several  stock-tenders  at  different  stations, 
burned  the  buildings,  and  stolen  the  horses.  From 
their  frequent  attacks  upon  the  coaches  it  was 
necessary  for  us  to  be  on  the  constant  outlook.  On 
the  second  day  after  leaving  Atchison,  the  eastern- 
bound  coach  met  us,  having  on  board  one  wounded 
passenger,  the  next  day  with  one  dead,  and  the  next 
with  another  wounded.  At  Sand  Hill  station  the 
body  of  the  station  keeper  was  lying  by  the  side  of 
the  smoking  ruins  of  the  log  cabin.  As  there  was 
no  stock  to  be  found  for  a  change  of  horses,  we 
drove  on  with  our  worn-out  team,  at  a  slow  pace,  to 
the  next  station.  The  reports  of  passengers  eastern- 
bound  were  also  very  discouraging.     Yet  this  risk  of 


214  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

life  did  not  lessen  travel.  The  coaches  were  gener- 
ally full.  The  fare  from  Atchison  to  Helena  was 
four  hundred  and  fifty  dollars,  and  our  meals  cost 
each  of  ub  upward  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  dollars 
more." 

These  preliminary  statements  as  to  the  difficulties 
and  dangers  of  the  early  transportation  will  make 
plainer  the  somewhat  extraordinary  prices  of  mer- 
chandise that  often  ruled.  Thus,  on  December  thirty- 
first,  1864,  one  will  see  coal  oil  quoted  in  the  market 
reports  of  Virginia  City,  Montana,  at  nine  to  ten 
dollars  per  gallon.  On  January  twenty-eighth,  1865, 
we  read:  ^^ Candles:  less  active  in  consequence  of  the 
decline  in  coal  oil."  Then  comes,  ^'Coal  oil,  nine 
dollars;  linseed  oil,  ten  dollars."  At  the  head  we  read 
that  theee  market  quotations  are  wholesale  prices  for 
gold,  and  that  ten  per  cent,  should  be  added  for 
retail  prices.  At  the  bottom  we  have  greenback 
quotations  for  gold  dust  and  gold  coin,  showing  that 
greenbacks  were  worth  not  quite  forty-five  cents  on 
the  dollar  for  gold  coin.  Even  this  was  more  than 
they  were  worth  in  the  States,  with  gold  at  two  twen- 
ty-five. Coal  oil  at  nine  dollars  a  gallon  in  gold,  with 
greenbacks  at  forty-five  cents,  would  cost  twenty 
dollars  a  gallon  in  greenbacks,  at  wholesale.  Add 
ten  per  cent.,  and  we  have  twenty-two  dollars  as  the 
retail  price.     Linseed  oil  at  ten  dollars    a    gallon 


\ 


%J 


v  -. '  ^ 


A  VOYAGEUR. 


AGAINST  THE  WATERS  216 

in  gold  would  be  twenty-four  dollars  and  twenty 
cents  a  gallon  in  greenbacks,  at  retail. 

In  the  issue  of  the  Post  of  April  twenty-second, 
1865,  flour  was  quoted  at  eighty-five  dollars  a  sack  of 
one  hundred  pounds  on  April  seventeenth,  and  it  is 
stated  that  on  April  nineteenth,  within  a  few  hundred 
miles,  it  had  sold  for  five  dollars  a  pound.  This  was 
just  after  the  surrender  of  Lee's  army,  when  green- 
backs were  selling  for  ninety-  cents  for  gold  dust,  and 
at  eighty-two  (eight  per  cent,  less)  for  coin.  This 
was  over  six  dollars  a  pound  for  flour,  or  twelve  hun- 
dred dollars  for  a  barrel ! 

On  April  twenty-ninth,  1865,  potatoes  were  worth 
forty  to  fifty  cents  a  pound  in  gold.  At  an  average 
price  of  forty-five  cents  a  pound,  a  bushel  (seventy 
pounds)  cost  thirty-eight  dollars  in  greenbacks.  On 
May  sixth  we  read :  ^'Potatoes.  Several  large  loads 
have  arrived,  .  .  .  causing  a  decline  of  five  cents 
a  pound.''  So  potatoes  dropped  off  in  price,  in  one 
day,  four  dollars  in  greenbacks  per  busheL 

''On  May  thirteenth,"  comments  Mr.  Langford 
further,  regarding  this  interesting  commercial  situa- 
tion, "we  note  that  the  principal  restaurant,  'in  con- 
sequence of  the  recent  fall  in  flour,'  reduced  day  board 
to  twenty  dollars  per  week  for  gold.  The  food  of  this 
restaurant  was  very  plain,  and  dried-apple  pies  were 
considered  a  luiurj.    At  that  time  I  was  collector 


216  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

of  internal  revenue,  and  received  my  salary  in  green- 
backs. I  paid  thirty-six  dollars  per  week  for  day 
board  at  the  Gibson  House,  at  Helena.  During  the 
period  of  the  greatest  scarcity  of  flour,  the  more 
common  hoarding  houses  posted  the  following  signs: 
^Board  with  bread  at  meals,  $32;  board  mthout 
bread,  $22 ;  board  with  bread  at  dinner,  $25.'  Those 
who  took  bread  at  each  meal  paid  about  ten  dollars 
per  week  more  thaji  those  who  took  none.'' 

Here  is  the  story  of  an  incipient  bread  riot  in  the 
ancient  West  of  thirty-five  years  ago,  taken  from 
the  columns  of  the  journal  previously  mentioned : 

'Virginia  City^  Montana,  April  22,  1865. 

^^April  16.  The  flour  market  opened  at  an  ad- 
vance of  ten  dollars  per  sack,  and  by  eleven  o'clock 
A.  M.  had  reached  the  nominal  price  of  sixty-five 
dollars  per  ninety-eight-pound  sack.  The  day  clos- 
ing, holders  asked  a  further  advance  of  five  dollars 
per  sack. 

"April  17.  The  demand  for  flour  is  increasing. 
The  market  opened  firm  at  yesterda/s  prices.  Be- 
fore ten  o'clock  it  had  advanced  to  seventy-five 
dollars  per  sack.  Eleven  o'clock  rolls  round  and 
finds  dealers  in  this  staple  asking  eighty  dollars  per 
ninety-eight-pound  sack.  A  few  transactions  were 
made  at  these  figures.     Before  twelve  o'clock  trans- 


AGAINST  THE  WATEES  Z17 

fers  were  made  at  eighty-five  dollars  per  sax^k,  and 
some  few  dealers  were  asking  a  further  advance  of 
five  dollars  per  sack.  Consumers,  having  no  other 
resource,  were  compelled  to  concede  to  the  nominal 
price  of  holders,  and  paid  ninety  dollars  per  sack  in 
gold. 

"April  18.  Flour  is  truly  on  the  rampage,  no 
concession  from  dealers'  prices  on  th.e  part  of  the 
very  few  holders  of  considerahle  quantities,  with  a 
still  further  advance  of  five  dollars  per  sack,  which 
hrings  the  price  of  an  average  lot  of  flour  to  the 
unprecedented  figures,  in  this  market,  of  one  dollar 
per  pound. 

"April  19.  The  flour  market  weakened  under  the 
excitenient  of  ^current  reports'  from  some  new  specu- 
lators in  the  market,  transfers  of  small  lots  being 
made  at  eighty  dollars  per  sack. 

^^leven  o'clock.  Our  city  is  thrown  into  a  state 
of  excitement.  Eumors  of  a  bread  riot  are  heard 
from  all  quarters. 

"Twelve  o'clock.  Our  principal  streets  are  well 
lined  and  coated  with  men,  avowedly  on  the  raid 
for  flour. 

"Later.  Flour  is  seized  wherever  found,  in  large 
or  small  quantities,  and  taken  to  a  common  depot. 
On  the  pretext  under  which  several  lots  of  flour 
were  confiscated,  we  do  not  think  that  any  one  would 


218  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

consider  it  wrong  or  objectionable  to  store  flour, 
Tinder  the  present  circumstances,  in  fire-proof  cellars 
or  warehouses. 

"We,  however,  do  not  indorse  the  concealing  of 
flour  under  floors  or  haystacks  when  the  article  is 
up  to  the  present  price.  We  know  of  no  parties 
that  were  holders  of  flour  that  could  not  have  real- 
ized a  handsome  profit  at  seventy-five  dollars  per 
sack;  hut  in  favor  of  merchants  that  have  invested 
in  this  staple  at  high  figures,  we  should  state  that 
we  have  known  flour  to  be  sold  within  a  circum- 
ference of  a  few  hundred  miles  at  the  rate  of  five 
dollars  per  pound,  and  no  raiders  in  the  market.'' 

'Virginia  City,  M.  T.,  May  6,  1865. 

"The  business  of  the  week  is  a  slight  improvement 
over  many  weeks  past,  owing  to  the  fine  weather 
sending  miners  all  to  work. 

^'Flour.  Still  continues  very  scarce,  three  small 
lots,  only  one  hundred  and  twenty-one  sacks  in  all, 
having  arrived  from  over  the  range,  and  were  rapidly 
sold  at  seventy-five  dollars  per  sack.  The  want  of 
this  staple  is  very  much  f^lt,  as  all  substitutes  for 
this  article  are  about  exhausted.'' 

These  curious  and  rapidly  forgotten  records  of 
another  day  show  us  clearly  that,  even  as  late  as  the 
Civil  War,  there  was  a  vast  land  beyond  the  Missouri 


AGAINST  THE  WATERS  219 

whose  people  and  whose  customs  were  different  from 
those  of  the  East;  which  had  earned  its  own  right 
to  be  different;  which  was  as  strong  and  self-reliant 
and  resourceful  as  though  it  were  part  of  another 
sphere;  and  which  might  claim  that  it  had  solved 
its  own  problems  for  itself  and  asted  no  aid.  Yet 
it  was  this  very  aloofness  and  independence  that 
had  always  threatened,  in  one  way  or  another,  the 
secession  of  the  West  in  fact  or  in  sympathy  from 
the  East.  Therefore  we  count  that  a  great  day — a 
day  fatal  for  the  West,  hut  glorious  for  America — 
when  the  heads  of  the  streams  were  reached  and 
the  mountains  overrun.  It  was  a  great  day,  an 
important  date — though  unrecorded  in  any  history 
of  this  land — ^when  the  West  had  gone  as  far  away 
as  it  could,  and  at  last  had  turned  and  begun  to 
come  back  home! 

At  the  end  of  the  Civil  War  the  West  had  ex- 
hausted all  the  possibilities  of  down-stream  and 
up-stream  transportation.  It  had  developed  its  re- 
sources to  a  remarkable  degree.  But  now  the 
time  was  come  for  newer,  more  rapid,  and  more 
revolutionary  methods.  The  West  was  at  the  begin- 
ning of  another  and  not  less  interesting  era,  a  time 
of  swift  and  startling  change. 

If  our  theory  regarding  Western  transportation 
and  Western  emigration  has  been  correct,  we  should 


220  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

now  be  able  to  check  back  on  the  census  map, 
and  expect  to  find  a  certain  verification  of  our  con- 
clusions. It  is  curious  to  observe  that  the  path  of 
the  star,  which  marks  on  the  census  charts  the 
center  of  population,  in  reality  has  followed  much 
the  same  line  as  the  early  west-bound  movement 
with  which  we  have  been  principally  concerned. 
The  star  moves  slowly  westward,  across  the  Alle- 
ghanies,  as  did  the  first  pioneers.  Then  it  follows 
down  the  valley  of  the  Ohio,  as  did  the  early 
down-stream  population  under  our  theory  of  the 
transportation  of  that  day. 

In  1860  the  center  of  population  is  situated  on  the 
Ohio  Eiver,  perhaps  a  hundred  miles  east  of  the  city 
of  Cincinnati.  In  1860  the  colors  thicken  deeply 
along  the  river  valleys ;  and  far  up  the  streams,  even 
toward  the  heads  of  the  Mississippi  and  the  Missouri, 
the  map  tells  us  that  the  population  is  denser  than  it 
is  in  regions  remote  from  any  waterways.  In  1870  the 
face  of  the  map  remains,  for  the  most  part,  bare  west 
of  the  Missouri,  except  where  the  Indian  reservations 
lie. 

On  the  Pacific  coast,  in  California  and  Oregon, 
there  is  a  population  in  some  districts  of  forty-five 
to  ninety  persons  to  the  square  mile.  Around  Hel- 
ena, Deer  Lodge,  and  other  mining  towns  of  Montana, 
there  is  a  faint  dash  of  color  showing  a  population 


AGAINST  THE  WATERS  221 

of  two  to  six  souls  to  the  square  mile,  whicli  is 
beyond  the  average  of  all  but  a  few  localities  west 
of  tlie  Missouri  River.  At  Salt  Lake,  at  Denver,  at 
Santa  Fe,  termini  of  transportation  in  their  day,  as 
we  have  seen,  there  are  bands  of  a  similar  color. 
The  total  population  of  America,  which  in  1810 
was  7,339,881,  and  in  1820,  the  beginning  of  our 
up-stream  days,  was  9,633,822,  is  in  1860  31,443,321 
and  in  1870  38,558,371.*  Nearly  all  of  this  popu- 
lation shows  on  the  census  map  as  east  of  the 
Missouri  River.  Out  in  the  unsettled  and  unknown 
region  west  of  the  ]\Iissouri  there  still  lay  the  land 
that  to  the  present  generation  means  the  West, 
appealing,  fascinating,  mysterious,  inscrutable;  and 
for  that  West  there  was  to  come  another  day. 


*The  average  density  of  settlement  of  the  United  States  was,  in 
1810,  17.7  persons  to  the  square  mile;  in  1820,  18.9  persons;  in 
1S60,  26.3;    in  1870,  30.3. 


THE  WAT  TO  THE  PACIFIC 

CHAPTER  I 

KIT  CAESON 

In  reviewing  the  life  of  Cliristoplier  Carson,  an- 
other of  our  Western  leaders  in  exploration,  we  come 
upon  the  transition  period  between  the  time  of 
up-stream  transportation  and  that  which  led  across 
the  waters;  the  epoch  wherein  fell  the  closing  days 
of  Western  adventure  properly  so  called,  and  the 
opening  days  of  a  Western  civilization  fitly  so  named. 
Kit  Carson,  as  he  was  always  called,  was  horn  in 
Madison  County,  Kentucky,  on  December  twenty- 
fourth,  1809.  Thus  it  may  be  seen  that  his  time 
lapped  over  that  of  Crockett  and  even  of  Boone.  It 
is  not  generally  known,  yet  it  is  the  case,  that  Kit 
Carson  was  a  grandson  of  Daniel  Boone. 

Carson's  life,  therefore,  rounds  out  the  time  of  the 
great  Westerners.  He  comes  down  to  the  railroad- 
building  day.  His  was  the  time  of  the  long-haired 
men    of    the    American    West.   John    Colter,    Jim 

Bridger,   Bill  Williams,  the  mulatto    Beckwith  or 

223 


224  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

Beckworth ;  the  great  generals  of  the  fur  trade,  Lisa, 
Ashley,  Henry,  Smith,  Sublette,  Fitzpatrick,  all  that 
company  of  the  great  captains  of  hazard — ^these  were 
the  men  of  his  day ;  and  among  them  all,  not  one  has 
come  down  to  us  in  more  distinct  figure  or  with 
memory  carrying  greater  respect. 

W^e  call  Fremont  "The  Great  Pathfinder,"  and 
credit  him  with  the  exploration  of  the  Eockies,  the 
Pacific  slope,  and  the  great  tramontane  interior 
basins.  Yet  Fremont  did  not  begin  his  explorations 
until  1842,  and  by  that  time  the  West  of  the  ad- 
yenturers  was  practically  an  outlived  thing.  For 
ten  years  the  fur  trade  had  been  virtually  defunct. 
For  more  than  a  decade  the  early  commerce  of  the 
prairies  had  been  waning.  The  West  had  been 
tramped  across  from  one  end  to  the  other  by  a  race 
of  men  peerless  in  their  daring,  chief  among  whom 
might  be  named  this  little,  gentle,  blue-eyed  man, 
of  whom  that  genially  supercilious  and  generally 
ignorant  biographer,  J.  S.  C.  Abbott,  is  good  enough 
to  write:  "It  is  strange  that  the  wilderness  could 
have  formed  so  estimable  a  character !" 

This  little  man — ^he  is  described  by  one  who  knew 
him  as  a  small  man,  not  over  five  feet  six  inches  in 
height — ^had,  long  before  he  ever  heard  of  Fremont, 
ridden  and  walked  along  every  important  stream  of 
the  Eocky   Mountains;  had  journeyed    across    the 


KIT  CAESON  225 

'^American  Deserf^  a  dozen  times,  back  and  forth; 
had  seen  every  foot  of  the  Eockies  from  the  Forks  of 
the  Missouri  to  the  Bayou  Salade;  had  seen  all  of 
New  Mexico;  had  visited  old  Mexico,  Arizona, 
Nevada,  and  California  as  we  now  know  them;  had 
camped  at  every  resting  ground  along  the  Arkansas 
and  Platte;  had  fought  and  traded  with  every  Indian 
tribe  from  the  Apaches  up  through  the  Navajos, 
Cheyennes,  Comanches,  Sioux,  and  Crows;  had  even 
fought  the  Blackfeet,  redoubtable  Northern  war- 
riors. 

In  short.  Kit  Carson  and  his  kind  had  really  ex- 
plored the  West,  and  by  1842  had  rendered  it 
safe  for  the  so-called  "exploration"  that  was  to 
make  its  wonders  public.  It  is  Kit  Carson  who 
might  better  have  the  title  of  "pathfinder.''  Yet 
this  was  something  to  which  he  himself  would  not 
have  listened,  for  well  enough  he  knew  that  he  was 
not  the  first.  Ahead  of  him  were  other  apostles  of 
the  fur  trade,  so  that  even  Kit  Carson  took  the 
West  at  second  hand,  as  later  we  shall  see.  He 
would  not  have  vaunted  himself  as  knowing  very 
much  of  the  West.  Yet  even  to-day  men  of  the  East 
are  exploring  the  West,  and  writing  gravely  of  their 
"discoveries." 

Five  feet  six,  with  twinkling  blue-gray  eyes,  a 
large  and  well-developed  head,  with  hair  sandy  and 


THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 


well  brushed  back,  Kit  Carson  at  bis  best  was  tlit 
reverse  of  impressive.  He  was  simple,  peaceable 
and  quiet  in  disposition,  temperate  and  strictly  moral 
in  a  time  and  place  where  these  qualities  made  one 
a  marked  man.  Yet  throughout  the  length  and 
breadth  of  the  Indian  country  this  little  man  was 
more  feared,  single  and  alone,  than  any  other  trapper 
or  Indian  fighter  in  all  the  West.  He  was  respected  as 
well  as  feared.  One  who  knew  him  well  said :  "Carson 
and  truth  mean  the  same  thing.  He  is  always  the 
same,  gallant  and  disinterested.  He  is  kind-hearted 
and  averse  to  all  quarrelsome  and  turbulent  scenes. 
He  is  known  far  and  wide  for  his  sober  habits,  strict 
honor,  and  great  regard  for  truth." 

One  of  Carson's  historians  describes  him  as  five 
feet  nine  inches  in  height,  as  weighing  one  hundred 
and  sixty  pounds,  and  as  having  a  "dark  and  piercing 
eye."  This  "dark  and  piercing  eye"  is  something 
that,  as  we  have  noted,  the  average  writer  on 
Western  themes  and  Western  adventures  will  not 
wilHngly  let  die.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  however,  we 
are  to  believe  that  our  hero  was  a  much  smaller  man 
than  this  description  makes  him  out  to  be,  and  that, 
though  of  well-developed  and  compact  frame,  he  was 
by  no  means  of  imposing  presence. 

We  shall  do  better  with  his  raiment,  for  here  we 
take  hold  upon  the  characteristics  of  the  West  at  its 


KIT  CARSON  227 

most  romantic  time.  In  the  garb  habitual  with  him 
for  more  than  half  his  life,  Carson  was  clad  in  a 
fringed  buckskin  shirt,  with  leggings  of  the  same  ma- 
terial, also  befringed.  The  shirt  was  handsomely  em- 
broidered with  quills  of  the  porcupine,  and  as  much 
might  be  said  for  the  moccasins  that  protected  his 
feet.  His  cap  was  of  fur,  sometimes  of  fox  skin, 
sometimes  of  'coon  skin,  mayhap  in  days  of  great  pros- 
perity, of  otter. 

His  rifle  was  that  of  Boone  or  Crockett,  improved 
only  to  a  limited  extent,  though  carrying  a  ball  some- 
what larger  than  that  needed  in  the  forests  of  Ken- 
tucky. Otherwise  he  might  have  been  the  typical 
early  American  rifleman  of  the  Alleghanies.  Under 
his  right  arm  rested  his  powder  horn  and  bullet 
pouch.  A  heavy  knife  for  butchering  hung  at  his 
belt,  as  well  as  a  whetstone  to  keep  it  in  good  condi- 
tion. At  a  certain  time  in  his  career  Carson  wore  an 
ornamented  belt,  with  heavy  silver  buckle,  which  sup- 
ported two  revolvers  and  a  knife. 

He  took  on  in  modest  sort  the  picturesque  fashions 
of  the  wilderness,  and,  uniting  as  he  did  the  mount- 
ains and  the  plains  in  his  habitat,  at  times  showed 
something  of  the  Spanish  love  of  display  in  the  trap- 
pings of  his  horse.  His  saddle  and  bridle  had  trace 
of  Mexico  in  their  gold  and  silver  ornamentation. 
His  horse,  be  sure,  was  a  good  one;  for  those  were 


228  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

times  when  a  man's  safety  much  depended  on  the 
fleetness  and  soundness  of  his  mount,  and  the  horse 
was  the  means  of  transportation  for  Carson  and  his 
kind. 

As  to  the  career  of  this  Western  man,  if  we  come 
to  follow  it  out  as  it  occurred  in  sequence,  we  shall 
arrive  at  hut  one  conclusion,  to  wit:  that,  conditions 
considered.  Kit  Oarson  was  the  greatest  of  all  Ameri- 
can travelers.  It  is  almost  unbelievable,  the  dis- 
tances he  traversed  along  with  his  wild  fellows  during 
those  vivid  years  in  which  he  forced  the  wild  West  to 
yield  him  a  living.  We  can  not  do  better  than  to 
trace  some  of  his  wanderings,  more  especially  those 
that  occurred  before  the  day  of  the  so-called  explora- 
tion of  the  West. 

Fremont^  who  knew  Carson  well,  speaks  of  him 
as  a  native  of  Boone's  Lick  County,  Missouri;  but 
Doctor  Peters,  his  biographer,  states,  apparently  with 
Carson's  authority,  that  Carson  was  born  in  Madison 
County,  Kentucky,  as  above  stated,  and  while  but 
one  year  of  age  was  brought  to  Howard  County, 
Missouri,  by  his  parents.  The  father  of  Carson  was 
a  good  farmer,  according  to  the  lights  of  his  time, 
and  a  good  hunter,  the  life  of  Missouri  during  those 
early  times  being  practically  that  known  by  the 
blockhouse  farmers  of  Kentucky  in  the  time  of 
Boone.     Kit  grew  up  sturdy,  quiet,  self-contained, 


KIT  CAESON  229 

self-reliant.  In  Ms  boyhood  he  was  a  steady  rifle 
shot,  and  early  acquired  a  reputation.  He  'liunted 
with  the  Sioux  Indians/'  we  are  told,  when  yet  a 
boy;  which  means  he  must  have  gone  north  up  the 
Missouri. 

At  fifteen  years  of  age  he  was  called  "old  for  his 
age;"  he  was  known  to  be  plucky,  prompt,  and 
tenacious  of  his  rights,  though  not  in  the  least 
quarrelsome.  Just  as  well-meaning  parents  tried  to 
send  Davy  Crockett  and  Daniel  Boone  to  school,  so 
did  the  kind  parents  in  this  case  undertake  to  instil 
commercial  principles  into  the  mind  of  Kit  Carson. 
To  his  father  it  seemed  important  that  he  should  be 
apprenticed  to  a  saddler.  From  the  saddler's  stool 
Kit  promptly  fell  off.  It  was  the  out-of-doors  that 
appealed  to  him;  the  West  that  spoke  to  him,  just 
as  it  had  to  Boone  and  Crockett.  He  broke  his  heart 
for  two  years  at  the  saddler's  bench,  and  that  ended 
both  his  commercial  and  scholastic  education.  In 
1826,  while  still  but  a  boy,  he  was  off  and  away 
across  the  plains,  having,  without  his  parents'  con- 
sent, joined  a  party  bound  for  Santa  Fe.  Thus 
would  the  youth  seek  his  fortune. 

Carson  reached  Santa  Fe  in  the  month  of  No- 
vember, 1826,  and  went  thence  to  Fernandez  de 
Taos,  eighty  miles  northeast  of  Santa  Fe,  and  spent 
the  winter  with  an  old  mountaineer  named  Kincaid, 


230  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

or  Kin  Cade^,  who  taught  him  something  of  the  lore  of 
the  mountains.  Perhaps  a  little  homesick,  in  the 
spring  Off  1827  he  started  bs/ck  for  the  East,  without  a 
penny  in  his  buckskin  pockets.  He  worked  back 
homeward  on  the  long  journey  down  the  Arkansas  to 
a  point  about  four  hundred  and  fifty  miles  east  of 
Santa  Ee,  and  there,  at  the  ford  of  the  Arkansas,  met 
another  band  of  traders,  west-bound,  to  whom  he 
hired  out  as  a  teamster. 

He  again  reached  Santa  Fe,  still  without  a  dollar, 
and  went  as  teamster  thence  as  far  south  as  El  Paso, 
returned  to  Santa  Fe,  and  again  to  Taos.  He  was 
learning  Spanish  and  learning  New  Mexico  all  this 
time.  He  now  hired  out  as  cook  to  Ewing  Young, 
and  continued  in  this  interesting  capacity  until  the 
spring  of  1828.  Again  he  started  East,  again  failed 
to  win  farther  than  before,  and  joined  another  west- 
bound party,  to  reach  Santa  Fe  a  third  time.  Now 
he  could  do  a  bit  in  Spanish,  and  hence  engaged  as 
interpreter  for  Colonel  Tramell,  and  wagoned  it  as 
far  south  as  Chihuahua,  in  old  Mexico.  All  this 
sounds  full  easy,  yet  even  these  few  joumeyings 
hitherto  covered  many,  many  weary,  blistering  miles. 

In  far-off  Chihuahua  young  Carson  hired  out  as  a 
teamster,  serving  in  the  employ  of  Eobert  McKnight. 
He  went  to  the  Copper  Mines,  on  the  Gila  Kiver,  and 
thence  back  once  more  to  Taos,  which  latter  place 


KIT  CAKSON  231 

was  to  serve  as  his  headquarters  all  Eis  life.  All 
this  time  it  was  Carson's  ambition  to  be  something 
better  than  a  cook,  or  a  teamster,  or  even  an  inter- 
preter. The  adventurer's  blood  was  in  his  veins.  It 
was  April  of  1829  when  he  joined  Young's  party  of 
trappers,  and  soon  thereafter  he  saw  his  first  fight, 
in  which  the  white  men  killed  some  fifteen  Indians. 
It  is  not  known  whether  or  not  Carson  distinguished 
himself  in  this  fight,  but  certainly  he  remained  with 
the  party,  and  it  was  no  coward's  company. 

This  band  now  worked  toward  the  West,  trapped 
down  the  Salt  River,  and  reached  the  head  of  the  San 
Francisco  Eiver.  They  concluded  to  go  over  to  the 
Sacramento  River  of  California,  then  reported  to 
abound  in  fur.  On  the  seventh  day's  journey  to 
the  west  and  southwest,  they  reached  the  Grand 
Canon  of  the  Colorado,  now  admitted  to  be  one  of 
the  wonders  of  the  world.  These  trappers  always 
remembered  the  Grand  Canon  of  the  Colorado;  for 
it  was  near  there  that  they  bought  a  horse  of  some 
wandering  Indians,  and  ate  it.  They  were  very 
hungry. 

There  were  no  trails  across  the  interior  desert  in 
those  days.  Hence,  although  these  were  not  the  first 
adventurers  to  cross  to  California,  they  were  in  effect 
pioneers.  In  some  way  they  succeeded  in  reaching 
San  Gabriel  Mission  of  California,  and  thence — ^by 


232  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

some  very  wonderful  geography  on  the  part  of  one 
or  two  "biographers — they  reached  the  Sacramento 
Eiver.  In  the  San  Joaquin  yalley  they  met  Peter 
Ogden's  party  of  Hudson  Bay  trappers.  So  we  may 
see  that  the  West  was  far  from  being  an  unexploited 
country  when  Kit  Carson  began  his  travels. 

This  early  transcontinental  party  was  successful  in 
its  trapping,  and  the  leader,  Ewing  Young,  visited 
San  Rafael  with  the  catch  of  furs  and  sold  it  out  in 
entirety  to  the  captain  of  a  trading  schooner.  He 
then  bought  horses  for  the  return  East.  The  Indians 
of  the  Sierra  foothills  promptly  stole  certain  num- 
bers of  these  horses.  Witness  augury  of  the  future 
of  Kit  Carson,  when  we  read  that  he  was  detailed 
as  the  leader  of  a  little  party  sent  out  in  pursuit  of 
the  horse  thieves.  This  was  his  first  independent 
scouting  trip.  He  and  his  party  killed  eight  Indians 
and  retook  the  horses.  Already  his  hand  was  ac- 
quiring cunning  in  the  stern  trade  of  Western  life. 

September  of  1829  found  Kit  Carson  back  again 
in  Xew  Mexico.  It  took  the  party  nine  days  to  ride 
from  I^s  Angeles  to  the  Colorado  River.  Thence 
they  seem  to  have  descended  the  Colorado  to  tide- 
water, to  have  crossed  over  to  the  Gila,  and  to  have 
ascended  the  Gila  to  San  Pedro.  There  was  some 
more  horse  stealing,  a  little  exchange  on  both  sides 
between  the  whites  and  Indians  in  this  line.     The 


KIT  CARSON  233 

whites  needed  horses,  for  they  had  no  other  meat. 
Yet  in  some  fashion  they  won  up  the  Gila  River  to 
the  copper  mines  of  New  Mexico;  which,  we  may 
see,  was  ground  already  known  to  Carson.  Here 
they  cached  their  furs,  since  these  would  be  con- 
traband under  the  Spanish  law,  nearly  all  of 
these  wanderings  having  taken  place  in  the  Span- 
ish territory  that  was  the  western  goal  of  the  early 
commerce  of  the  prairies. 

In  time  the  party  turned  up  at  Santa  Fe,  reach- 
ing that  city  in  April,  1830,  where  the  leader.  Young, 
disposed  of  his  furs,  the  net  result  for  eighteen  men 
during  a  term  of  one  year  being  twenty-four  thou- 
sand dollars.  Kit  Carson  was  now  twenty-one  years 
of  age,  and  he  was  fully  initiated  in  his  calling. 
We  can  not  appreciate  these  joumeyings  except  by 
taking  an  accurate  map  of  the  great  Western  country, 
and  following,  finger  by  finger,  along  stream  and 
across  mountain,  the  course  of  the  early  voyagers. 

This,  however,  is  but  the  beginning.  In  the  fall 
of  1830  the  noted  Western  fur  trader,  Fitzpatrick, 
organized  a  strong  party,  and  it  was  matter  of  course 
that  Carson  would  find  his  way  into  it.  This  band 
visited  the  Platte  River,  whose  long  southern  arm 
reaches  so  deep  down  into  the  heart  of  the  Rockies. 
Thence,  along  good  beaver  waters,  they  moved  over 
to  the  Green  River,  Pacific  waters,  also  historic  in  the 


234  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

fur  trade.  We  find  them  later  in  Jackson's  Hole, 
east  of  the  range,  even  today  the  center  of  a  great 
game  conntrj.  Thence  the}^  moved  west  to  the 
Salmon  Eiver,  into  a  country  still  one  of  the  wild- 
est parts  of  America ;  and  there,  much  as  a  matter  of 
fact,  they  joined  others  of  their  party,  who  had 
started  out  slightly  in  advance  of  them,  and  "for 
whom  they  had  been  looking/'  as  one  chronicler 
naively  advises  us.  It  was  a  search  and  a  meeting  in 
the  heart  of  a  wilderness  many  hundreds  of  miles  in 
extent. 

The  winter  of  1830-1831  was  spent  by  Carson  on 
the  Salmon  Eiver.  Now  enter  those  stern  warriors 
of  the  North,  the  Blackfeet.  Kit  saw  four  of  his 
companions  killed.  He  was  inured  to  such  scenes, 
and  the  incident  gave  him  no  pause.  April  of 
1831  found  him  on  the  Bear  River.  Moving, 
always  moving,  we  see  him  now  on  the  Green 
River,  again  in  the  "New  Park"  of  Colorado,  on  the 
plains  of  Laramie,  again  on  the  long  South  Fork  of 
the  Platte,  and  presently  on  the  Arkansas.  Be- 
seech you,  let  your  finger  ever  follow  on  the  map; 
and  accept  warrant  that  if  your  following  has  been 
honest,  your  eyes  shall  stare  in  wonder  at  these 
joumeyings.  Let  one  seek  to  duplicate  it  himself, 
even  in  these  civilized  days  when  towns  and  ranches 
crowd  the  West;    and  then,  having    restored  that 


KIT  CARSON  235 

West  to  the  day  of  beaver  and  Blackfeet,  ask  himself 
how  had  it  been  with  him  had  he  been  in  Carson's 
company! 

This  winter  camp  on  the  Arkansas  River  furnished 
a  certain  amount  of  interest.  A  party  of  fifty  Crow 
Indians  raided  the  camp  and  stole  a  number  of 
horses.  It  was  Carson  once  more,  we  may  be  sure, 
who  was  elected  to  lead  the  pursuit.  Twelve  Indians 
were  killed  by  the  young  leader  and  his  hardy  rifle- 
men. Carson  was  now  accepted  as  one  of  the  cap- 
tains of  the  trails.  He  had  fully  learned  his  bold 
and  difficult  trade. 

In  the  spring  of  1832  Carson's  party  moved  to  the 
Laramie  River;  moved  again  to  the  headwaters  of 
the  South  Fork  of  the  Platte,  and  caught  beaver 
and  fought  Indians  for  a  few  months;  from  the 
Laramie  to  the  Bayou  Salade,  or  Ballo  Salade,  as  it 
was  sometimes  spelled  in  those  days.  These  opera- 
tions were  carried  on  in  the  heart  of  the  most 
dangerous  Indian  country  of  the  West.  Heretofore 
it  had  been  the  custom  of  the  trappers  to  go  in 
parties  of  considerable  size,  so  that  they  might  suc- 
cessfully meet  the  Indians,  who  even  thus  made 
affairs  dangerous  enough.  The  quality  of  Carson's 
spirit  may  therefore  be  seen  when  we  discover  him, 
with  only  two  companions,  breaking  away  for  a 
solitary  beaver  hunt  in  the  mountains  in  the  heart 


236  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

of  the  range.  Yet  these  three  were  fortunate,  and 
returned  to  Taos  in  the  fall  of  1832  well  laden  with 
furs. 

At  Taos,  Carson  met  Captain  Lee  of  the  United 
States  Army,  a  partner  of  that  Bent  who  founded 
Bent's  Fort  on  the  Arkansas.  Captain  Lee  had  a 
cargo  of  goods  that  he  wished  to  take  to  the  rendez- 
vous of  the  trapping  hands  for  that  year.  Kit  joined 
him  for  the  time,  and  in  October  of  1832  they  pushed 
on,  traveling  part  of  the  time  on  the  old  Spanish 
trail  to  California.  They  reached  the  White  River, 
i;he  Green  River,  the  *^^Vindy"  River,  and  here,  as 
though  by  special  plan,  they  met  their  band  of 
trappers^  erected  their  skin  lodges,  and  passed  the 
winter.  Kit  joined  the  Fitzpatrick  party  for  a  time 
in  the  next  spring,  but  after  his  own  restless  fashion 
broke  away  again,  with  only  three  companions. 

In  the  summer  of  1833  we  find  the  four  on  the 
Laramie  River,  doing  independent  trapping  and  tak- 
ing their  chances  as  to  Indians.  It  was  about  this 
time  that  Kit  had  his  historic  adventure  with  two 
bears,  which  chased  him  up  a  tree,  and  which  he 
repelled  by  beating  them  over  the  noses  with  a  branch 
broken  from  the  tree.  The  ever-wise  biographer  Ab- 
bott, who  gravely  informs  us  that  Crockett  killed 
''^voracious  grizzly  bears"  in  the  cane-brakes  of  Ten- 
nessee, with  equal  accuracy  advises  us  that  the  ^^grizzly 


KIT  CARSON  23: 

bear  can  climb  a  tree  as  well  as  a  man."  Herein  we 
find  some  mystery  about  Carson's  bear  adventure. 
Carson  as  a  liunter  would  have  been  the  first  to  know 
that  a  grizzly  bear  can  not  climb  a  tree  unless  it  be  a 
horizontal  one.  Tliere  is  no  doubt,  however,  that 
some  such  adventure  took  place  with  some  sort  of 
bears,  and  that  Carson  saved  his  leggings  if  not  his 
life  by  a  knowledge  of  the  tenderness  of  a  bear's  nose. 

All  this  time  our  Westerner,  our  trapper,  is  fitting 
himself  for  his  work  in  the  West  as  guide  for 
^^explorers."  We  find  him  with  fifty  men,  pushing 
up  quite  to  the  headwaters  of  the  Missouri  River, 
and  later  he  and  some  companions  turn  up  along 
the  historic  Yellowstone  River,  a  country  then  well 
known  in  the  organized  fur  trade  of  St.  Louis.  We 
do  not  discover  that  he  ever  went  into  the  regular 
employ  of  any  of  the  fur  traders.  ISTo  engage  or 
ordinary  '^^pork  eater"  he,  but  a  companion  nearly 
always  of  these  independent  fur  traders,  the  individ- 
ual gentry  of  the  wilderness.  We  find  him  now 
becoming  acquainted  with  the  Big  Horn.  He  knows 
also  the  three  forks  of  the  Missouri;  and  he  visits 
the  "Big  Snake"  River  and  the  Humboldt  River,  then 
called  Mary's  River,  since  scientists  still  were  scarce 
in  the  Rockies. 

He  wanders  continually  back  and  forth  across  the 
upper  Rockies.  Brown's  Hole,  Jackson's  Hole,  Henry 


238  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

Lake,  the  Black  Hills,  all  the  upper  waters  of  the 
great  rivers,  the  Columbia,  the  Snake,  the  Green,  the 
Colorado,  the  Platte,  the  Missouri,  the  Yellowstone, 
the  Arkansas, — ^you  shall  hardly  name  any  well-known 
Western  region,  any  remote  mountain  park,  any  ac- 
curately mapped  Western  stream  which  you  shall  not, 
providing  you  have  faithfully  followed  the  wanderings 
of  Kit  Carson,  discover  to  have  been  familiar  to  this 
man  even  before  geographies  were  dreamed  of  west 
of  the  Missouri  Kiver. 

It  would  be  but  wearying  to  go  on  with  the  monot- 
onous chronicle  of  repeated  journeys  back  and  forth, 
of  hardships,  of  toils  and  dangers,  of  the  round  of  the 
trapper's  employment,  of  the  wild  life  at  those 
wild,  strange  annual  markets  of  the  mountains,  the 
trappers'  rendezvous.  It  will  suffice  us  and  serve  us 
to  remember  that  Carson  practically  closed  his  life 
as  a  trapper  in  1834,*  this  date  marking  the  end  of 
eight  years  steadily  employed  by  him  in  trapping 
and  trading  and  in  learning  the  West.  In  1834  he 
and  such  companions  as  Bill  Williams,  William  New, 
Mitchell,  Frederick,  and  scores  of  others  of  his  old- 
time  friends,  found  themselves  practically  without 
a  calling.    When,  after  one  long  expedition  west 


•Pray  remember  always  this  date  of  1834.  It  is  writ  in  few 
histories.  It  marks  the  closing  scenes  of  the  fur  trade,  the  waning 
of  the  wild  West,  the  beginning  of  the  new  day.  In  1834  the  pre- 
liminary survey  of  civilization  had  been  practically  completed. 


KIT  CAKSON  239 

of  the  range,  they  reached  Fort  Koubidoui,  it  was 
only  to  discover  that  fare  had  gone  very  low  in  price. 

The  advent  of  the  silk  hat  had  caused  terror  in  St. 
Louis,  and  gloom  throughout  the  Eockies.  The  day 
of  the  beaver  trade  was  at  an  end.  That  animal,  of 
so  monstrous  an  importance  in  the  history  of  the 
American  continent,,  was  now  to  assume  a  place  far 
lower  in  estimation.  Our  bold,  befringed  mountain- 
eers learned  that  it  would  no  longer  pay  to  pursue  it 
into  the  remote  fastnesses  of  the  Rocky  Mountains. 
Yet  the  beaver  had  served  its  purpose.  Following 
its  tooth-marks  on  the  trees,  there  had  pressed  on  to 
the  head  of  every  Western  river  a  man  qualifying 
for  office  as  guide  of  the  west-bound  civilization 
beyond  the  Missouri.  Kit  Carson,  type  of  the  grad- 
uated trapper  and  adventurer,  had  had  his  schooling. 

Yet  a  man  must  live,  and  if  there  be  no  price 
for  beaver  peltry  he  must  turn  his  hand  to  something 
else  for  occupation.  For  eight  years  Kit  Carson 
served  as  hunter  for  the  post,  well-known  as  Benf  s 
Fort,  on  the  Arkansas  Eiver.  There  he  fed  forty 
men  on  the  wild  meat  of  the  plains,  and  during 
his  eight  years  of  hunting  killed  thousands  of  buf- 
falo, elk,  and  deer.  He  saw  the  plains  in  all  their 
ancient  undimmed  splendor,  and  whether  he  most 
loved  the  mountains  or  the  plains  he  himself  never 
could  tell.     Carson  at  an  earlier  time  had  married 


240  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

an  Indian  girl,  and  during  his  engagement  at  Fort 
Bent  he  sent  his  one  child,  a  daughter,  to  St.  Louis 
for  the  purpose  of  acquiring  an  education.  There 
i^e  daughter  married,  went  to  California,  and  ap- 
parently passes  from  the  scene.  Carson's  later 
marriage  was  with  a  Mexican  woman  very  much 
younger  than  himself.* 

If  in  the  year  1834  Carson  terminated  the  first 
term  of  his  Wanderschaft,  in  1842,  when  he  closed 
his  first  engagement  as  hunter  for  Bent's  Fort,  he 
completed  the  second  season  of  his  Western  life  and 
was  ready  for  the, third.  In  that  year  he  joined  a 
wagon  train  bound  eastward,  having  determined  to 
revisit  his  old  home  in  Missouri,  which  he  had  not 
seen  for  sixteen  years.  The  visit  was  sad  and  cheer- 
less enough.  He  returned  to  find  his  parents  dead 
and  forgotten,  the  old  homestead  in  ruins,  and  not 
a  friend  left  to  take  him  by  the  hand. 

He  hastened  thence  to  St.  Louis,  but  ten  days  of 
even  the  capital  of  the  fur  trade  proved  sufl&cient  for 
him.  Soon  afterward,  as  is  stated  by  his  most  re- 
liable biographer,  he  by  mere  chance  met  young  Fre- 
mont, then  bound  West  to  '^explore"  the  Eocky 
Mountains,  more  especially  that  part  of  the  Rockies 
in  the  vicinity  of  the  South  Pass.     Fremont's  guide 


*0ne  of  Carson's  daughters,  after  a  sad  life  story,  is  said  to 
have  died  in  New  Mexico,  in  an  insane  asylum,  in  1902. 


KIT  CARSON  9A7. 

did  not  materialize  at  the  time,  and  Carson's  modestly 
proffered  services  were  engaged  by  the  army  officer, 
who  needed  a  guide  across  country,  which  to  many  a 
Western  man  was  as  familiar  as  his  own  dooryard.* 

During  his  first  expedition  Carson  does  not  seem 
to  have  been  much  valued  by  Fremont.  Basil 
Lajeunesse  was  the  favorite,  and  it  was  always  Basil 
Lajeunesse  here,  there,  and  everywhere;  Carson,  a 
man  of  much  greater  experience  and  reliability, 
liaving  not  as  yet  come  into  his  own  as  a  guide, 
though  forsooth  there  was  small  need  of  guiding  on 
this  journey.  Fremont  engaged  Carson  at  one  hun- 
dred dollars  a  month,  and  he  was  the  twenty-eighth 
man  in  the  party,  which  also  included  two  boys,  young 
relatives,  who  after  all  were  not  in  so  very  dangerous 
an  enterprise. 

Little  of  the  eventful  occurred  in  the  long  journey 
across  Kansas  to  Fort  Laramie,  and  so  at  last  they 
arrived  at  the  South  Pass,  having  met  no  Indians  at 
all,  although  they  had  feared  the  Sioux.  Fremont 
rode  across  the  gentle  summit  so  long  known  to  the 
fur  traders,  climbed  the  mountain  that  was  later 
named  for  him,  and  returned  to  Fort  Laramie  in 
September,  1842.  Thus  ended  his  first  expedition, 
which  began  his  reputation  as  a  '^pathfinder."    Let 


*V.     Chapter  III,   Vol.   Ill;    Early  Explorers  of  the      Trans- 
Missouri.     The  Oregon  trail  was  then  a  plain  highway. 


243  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

him  who  has  followed  the  travels  of  Kit  Carson  in 
the  trapping  trade  state  who  was  the  real  finder  of 
the  paths. 

After  the  first  Fremont  expedition,  Carson  re- 
turned to  Bent's  Fort,  and  in  Fehruary  of  1843 
married  the  young  Mexican  woman  who  remained 
his  faithful  companion  throughout  his  life.  Carson 
was  sent  with  a  message  to  Governor  Armijo  with  a 
warning  for  the  latter,  but  one  hundred  of  the  Mexi- 
cans connected  with  Armijo's  wagon  train  were  killed 
bj  the  Texans  on  the  historic  wagon  road  up  the 
Arkansas  Eiver;  we  being  thus  now  in  touch  with 
the  strong  and  warlike  population  that,  led  by 
Houston,  Travis,  Fannin,  Crockett,  had  been  fight- 
ing the  Spanish  arms  to  the  southward  of  Carson's 
hunting  grounds. 

Up  to  this  time  Kit  Carson  had  been  more 
savage  than  civilized.  He  had  never  cast  a  vote 
for  any  office.  He  had  lived  on  the  product 
of  his  rifle.  He  had  learned  the  habits  of  the  wild 
men  and  wild  animals  of  the  West.  Yet  he  seems 
to  have  gained  something  of  that  forcefulness  and 
self-confidence  which  sooner  or  later  is  bound  to 
impress  itself  upon  others;  for  on  May  twenty-ninth 
of  1843  we  find  Fremont  again  sending  for  him,  and 
asking  his  services  as  guide  for  his  second  expedition. 

This  time  it  was  Fremont's  purpose  to  connect  his 


KIT  CARSON  M3 

last  year's  work  with  the  Pacific  Coast  surveys  which 
had  been  begun  by  Wilkes.  All  know  how  Fremont 
exceeded  his  orders,  how  his  wife  pluckily  held  back 
from  him  the  knowledge  of  his  recall,  and  how  this 
transcontinental  expedition,  by  no  means  the  first, 
though  one  of  the  most  widely  acclaimed,  made  its 
way  over  grounds  new  to  Fremont  but  old  to  Carson. 
The  first  part  of  the  journey  was  among  the  old 
trapping  grounds  along  the  North  Fork  of  the  Platte 
and  on  the  Sweetwater,  thence  to  Salt  Lake — all 
points  fully  known  to  the  fur  trade  many  years 
before.  The  journey  thence  ran  to  Fort  Hall  and 
along  the  perfectly  determined  trail  northwest  to  the 
Columbia  River.  Fremont  then  pushed  on  to  Tlamath 
Lake,  Oregon,  heading  thence  for  California. 

This  country  between  the  Tlamath  Lake  and  the 
Sacramento  valley  was  new  even  to  Carson.  Every- 
body supposed*  that  there  was  a  great  river,  known 
as  the  Buena  Ventura,  which  rose  on  the  west  side 
of  the  Rocky  Mountains  at  a  point  directly  opposite 
the  headwaters  of  the  Arkansas,  and  flowed  westward 
directly  into  the  Pacific  ocean.  The  little  fact  of 
the  Sierra  Nevada  mountain  range  was  wholly  over- 
looked. 

Carson  honestly  did  his  best,  but  he  was  in  the 


•In  spite  of  the  GallaUn  map,  t-wo  years  earlier.     V.  Chapter 
IV,    Vol.    IH;     "Early  Explorers  of   the  Trans-Missouri." 


244  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

hands  of  a  leader  who  undertook  to  cross  the  Sierras 
with  a  pack-train  where  there  was  six  feet  of 
snow,  and  with  a  party  the  total  number  of  which 
counted  only  two  men  that  had  eyer  before  worn 
snowshoes  in  all  their  lives!  x^ever  was  there  poorer 
mountaineering  or  worse  leadership  than  this.  But 
it  was  not  Kit  Carson  that  was  responsible. 

After  very  many  hardships,  the  expedition  worked 
to  the  south  and  southeast  of  the  Tlamath  country, 
and  got  down  near  to  what  is  now  known  as  Pyramid 
Lake.  Then  they  started  across  for  the  Sacramento, 
not  having  discovered  the  fabled  Buena  Ventura. 
Carson,  quiet,  not  boasting,  openly  confessing  his 
ignorance  of  a  country  he  had  never  seen,  none  the 
less  in  these  hard  conditions  proved  serviceable  as  a 
guide.  He  pushed  on  ahead,  and  from  a  peak  of 
the  Sierras  got  a  glimpse  of  the  Coast  Range.  He 
had  not  seen  this  Coast  Eange  chain  for  seventeen 
years,  but  now  he  noted  two  little  mountains  that 
seemed  familiar  to  him.  He  told  his  leader  that  if 
only  they  could  win  across  the  Sierras,  they  would 
presently  be  in  a  country  of  warmth  and  plenty. 

The  men  by  that  time  were  eating  their  saddle 
leathers,  the  mules  were  eating  each  other's  tails.  It 
was  a  starving,  freezing  time,  this  foolish  bit  of 
mountain  work,  such  as  in  all  his  trapping  experience 
Carson  never  saw  equalled.  Yet  at  last  they  did  reach 


KIT  CARSON  245 

Sutter's  Fort,  on  March  sixth,  1844,  two  thousand 
miles  from  Fort  Hall.  Some  of  the  men  were  phys- 
icall}^  ruined  and  mentally  deranged  from  their  suf- 
ferings. It  was  military  and  not  mountain  leader- 
ship that  was  responsible  for  all  this. 

But  our  continually  traveling  man,  this  little  man, 
Kit  Carson,  was  not  to  have  any  rest  even  in  the 
pleasant  valley  of  the  Sacramento.  We  find  the 
expedition  soon  starting  East  again,  now  by  way 
of  the  San  Jose  valley,  over  the  Sierras  to  the 
Mojave  River,  country  long  known  to  the  traveling 
trappers.  Here  Carson  and  his  friend  Godey  con- 
ducted a  little  enterprise  of  their  own,  undertaken 
in  sheer  knight-errantry,  in  behalf  of  a  party  of 
Mexicans  that  had  been  nearly  annihilated  by  the 
Indians.  These  two  men  rode  a  hundred  miles  in 
thirty  hours,  and  alone  attacked  a  large  camp  of 
Indians,  killing  two  of  them  and  stampeding  the 
remainder. 

The  Fremont  party  arrived  at  Bent's  Fort  on  tlie 
Arkansas  July  second,  1844.  They  had  traveled 
somewhere  between  thirty-five  hundred  and  four  thou- 
sand miles,  had  circiminavigated  the  mysterious 
'^Great  Desert,"  and  for  eight  months  had  never  been 
out  of  sight  of  ice  and  snow.  Fremont  was  able  to 
report  upon  the  great  Columbia  River,  and  he  and 
his  contemporaries  did  not  hesitate  to  extol  the  value 


246  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

of  Oregon  as  a  gateway  of  the  Asiatic  trade — ^a  line 
of  commerce  which  for  half  a  century  did  little  to 
establish  the  truth  of  their  prophecy. 

This,  then,  was  the  end  of  the  first  exploration 
of  the  Rockies  accompanied  by  thermometer  and 
barometer  rather  than  by  trap  sack  and  "possible 
bag."  It  was  of  yalue.  If  we  were  asked  what  was 
the  most  yaluable  result  of  this  second  expedition  of 
Fremont,  we  should  be  obliged  to  answer  that  it 
was  his  mention  of  the  great  value  of  the  Western 
grasses.  Fremont  was  an  observer,  a  chronicler,  a 
writer.  It  was  he  that  first  began  to  bring  back  ac- 
curate story  of  the  resources  of  the  West. 

The  mineral  wealth  of  the  West,  over  which  the 
trappers  had  tramped  for  a  quarter  of  a  cen- 
tury, was  as  yet  unsought  and  unsuspected  by  Fre- 
mont or  any  one  else.  It  was  to  be  first  the  fur  trade, 
then  the  mining  trade,  then  the  cattle  trade  in 
the  trans-Mississippi  West;  and  after  that  the  agri- 
cultural life,  followed  by  the  days  of  swift  transpor- 
tation, of  change,  of  transition  and  expansion  and 
gourd-like  growth  in  all  visible  ways. 

We  are  now  well  forward  in  the  third  era  of  Kit 
Carson's  career.  If  at  first  he  was  a  trapper  and  hun- 
ter in  order  that  he  might  becom'e  fit  guide,  during 
the  third  stage  of  his  life  he  was  to  be  accepted  as 
the  authorized  guide  of  the  most  important  prelim- 


KIT  CARSON  247 

inaries  for  the  west-bound  movement  of  the  trans- 
Mississippi  population.  After  the  close  of  the  sec- 
ond Fremont  expedition,  and  during  the  year  1845, 
Carson  tried  to  be  a  ranchman  or  farmer,  pitching 
his  tents  for  the  time  about  fifty  miles  east  of  Taos. 
It  was  of  no  avail.  Fremont  called  for  him  once  more. 
The  farm  was  sold  for  half  its  value,  and  once 
more  Carson  set  his  face  toward  the  West,  in  com^ 
pany  with  a  Fremont  now  older,  better  seasoned  and 
of  better  judgment.  A  more  direct  trail  across 
the  Great  Basin  and  into  California  was  desired  than 
that  taken  either  in  going  or  returning  on  the  second 
expedition. 

Carson  was  the  one  to  go  ahead.  He  traveled 
alone  for  sixty  miles  west  of  the  Great  Salt  Lake, 
directly  into  the  desert,  and  the  rest  of  the 
party  came  up  to  his  signal  smoke.  Thence  they 
pushed  on  to  the  Carson  Eiver,  searching  still  for 
a  new  pass  over  the  Sierras  into  the  valley  of  the 
San  Joaquin.  At  last  they  won  across,  as  did  the 
earlier  trappers,  and  again  they  reached  Sutter's  Fort 
in  due  time.  A  branch  of  the  main  party,  that  headed 
by  Talbott,  did  not  appear  at  the  appointed  meeting 
place.  It  was  Carson,  of  course,  Carson  the  traveler, 
who  was  despatched  down  the  San  Joaquin  valley  to 
discover  the  truth  of  a  rumor  that  Talbott  and  his 


248  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

party  had  appeared  in  that  locality.  Needless  to 
say  the  wanderers  were  found. 

Now  there  broke  out  the  Mexican  imbroglio,  in 
which  the  part  of  Fremont  is  well  known.  For  a 
time  Fremont's  party  moved  north,  along  the  Sacra- 
mento, thence  toward  the  Columbia  Eiver.  They  did 
not  know  that  war  had  been  declared  between  the 
United  States  and  Mexico.  Lieutenant  Gillespie, 
hot  on  their  trail,  brought  the  message  that  hos- 
tilities had  broken  out.  In  Oregon,  in  the  Tlamath 
countr}',  came  the  night  attack  in  which  Basil  La- 
jeunesse  and  three  others  of  the  party  were  killed. 
Carson  saw  his  companion,  a  brave  Delaware  Indian, 
stand  up  and  receive  a  half-dozen  arrows  from  unseen 
foes.  He  joined  the  pursuit  in  the  dark;  and  later, 
on  the  backward  trail  to  California  with  Gillespie, 
helped  execute  the  stern  mountain  vengeance  on 
the  Tlamaths,  leading  the  mountaineers  in  all  their 
desperate  little  fights. 

The  exploring  party  had  now  become  military,  and 
so  the  flag,  led  and  backed  by  American  moun- 
taineers, went  up  above  a  Western  empire.  As  to 
the  services  of  this  far-traveling  mountain  man 
to  his  leader  and  to  his  country,  we  can 
scarcely  overestimate  them.  Some  idea  of  the 
confidence    in    which    he    was    now    held    may 


KIT  CARSON"  249 

be  gathered  from  the  fact  that,  after  the  Fre- 
mont operations  in  California,  Carson  was  sent 
with  despatches  to  Washington,  in  order  that  the 
government  might  know  what  was  happening  on  the 
far-away  Pacific  slope. 

He  started  on  September  fifteenth,  1846,  and  it 
was  asked  of  him  that  he  make  the  entire  trip 
to  Washington  inside  of  sixty  days;  this  at  a 
time  when  there  was  not  a  foot  of  railway  west 
of  the  Missouri,  and  when  all  the  country  from  the 
Pacific  to  the  Missouri  was  more  or  less  occupied  with 
hostile  savages.  None  the  less  Carson  started,  the 
first  overland  rider  to  bear  despatches  on  a  continu- 
ous journey  of  this  nature. 

By  October  sixth  he  was  far  toward  the  eastward, 
across  the  Rockies,  when  he  met  General  Kearney's 
column.  Kearney  ordered  Carson  to  turn  back  and 
guide  him  westward  to  California.  Without  a  mur- 
mur the  little  blue-eyed  man  remarked:  ^^As  the 
General  pleases."  He  did  not  stop  to  visit  his 
own  family  at  Taos,  but  went  back  once  more 
to  lead  the  west-bound  flag.  By  December  third 
the  slow  column  had  reached  California,  and  here 
it  met  more  warlike  experiences  than  it  liked  or 
had  believed  possible.  The  California  Mexicans  that 
fell  upon  Kearney's  column  were  fighters.  They 
killed  fifty  of  the  Americans,  surrounded  the  re- 


250  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

mainder,  and  bade  fair  to  exterminate  the  entire  ex- 
pedition. 

Witness  again  the  service  of  the  scout  and  guide. 
Carson  and  Lieutenant  Beale  of  the  N'avy  were 
sent  out  as  special  messengers  to  San  Diego. 
In  some  way  they  got  through  the  beleaguering  lines, 
and  after  a  perilous  journey  arrived  at  San  Diego 
and  secured  the  desired  help.  This  sort  of  thing 
was  nothing  new  to  Carson.  It  was  so  severe  for 
Beale  that  he  went  deranged,  and  it  took  him  two 
years  to  recover  from  his  journey,  brave  man  and 
bold  as  he  was.  The  Army  and  Navy  had  not  the 
seasoning  of  the  American  mountain  men,  the  hardi- 
est breed  ever  grown  on  the  face  of  the  globe. 

At  Los  Angeles  Carson  finally  rejoined  Fremont, 
in  time  for  that  tempest  in  a  teapot  wherein  Fremont 
and  Kearney  fell  at  swords'  points.  These  things 
are  of  no  moment,  yet  it  is  significant  that  in  March, 
1847,  Carson  was  sent  once  more  as  despatch  bearer 
to  Washington.  He  went  light  and  speedy  as  before, 
met  the  Indians  on  the  Gila,  fought  them  and  won 
through.  This  time  he  reached  Washington,  after 
his  long  and  steady  ride  across  New  Mexico  and 
down  the  Arkansas  River  to  the  Missouri,  arriving 
in  the  month  of  June,  after  having  made  four  thou- 
sand miles  in  three  months.  We  make  it  in  about 
three  days  to-day. 


KIT  CARSON*  251 

In  Washington  Carson  met  Jessie  Benton  Fre- 
mont, wife  of  the  "Pathfinder"  and  daughter  of  the 
arch-protector  of  the  fur  traders  and  of  Fremont, 
Thomas  Benton.  Carson  was  now  appointed  lieuten- 
ant of  the  rifle  corps  of  the  United  States  Army;  a 
commission  which,  hy  the  way,  was  never  ratified, 
although  he  did  not  know  this  for  some  months. 
He  was  sent  back,  four  thousand  miles,  to  bear 
despatches  in  return.  He  crossed  the  Missouri  River, 
fought  the  Comanches  at  the  Point  of  Rocks,  got 
through  them,  pushed  on  west  as  steadily  as  ever,  and 
reached  the  Virgin  River,  in  the  dry  Southwest,  be- 
fore he  met  his  next  Indian  fight.  He  and  fifteen 
comrades  here  stood  off  three  hundred  Indians.  In 
due  time  he  reached  Monterey,  and  after  this  he  took 
service  against  the  Mexicans  on  the  border  for  a  time. 

So  energetic  a  man  cannot  be  allowed  to  rest,  and 
in  the  spring  of  1848  he  is  sent  back  once  more  to 
Washington.  The  physical  frame  of  any  other  man 
except  Kit  Carson  had  been  by  all  these  joumeyings 
too  far  racked  to  enable  him  to  make  this  long  and 
hazardous  trip.  The  souls  of  most  men  would  have 
failed  them  long  ere  this.  Yet  this  hardy,  tough 
little  man,  just  big  enough  for  steady  riding,  cheer- 
fully undertakes  his  third  journey  across  the  moun- 
tains as  despatch  bearer  for  the  United  States  Army. 

This  time  he  meets  Utes  and  Apaches,  fights  them. 


252  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

wins  through  them,  and  goes  on.  He  stops  on  this 
trip  just  for  a  day  to  see  his  family  at  Taos,  aver- 
aging a  visit  home  about  once  in  three  years.  It  is 
here  that  he  learns  that  he  is  not  a  lieutenant,  after 
all;  but  that  does  not  check  his  loyalty  to  the  flag. 
He  goes  east  now  up  the  Bijou,  and  down  the  Platte 
to  the  Eepublican  Fork,  in  order  to  dodge  certain  In- 
dians, who,  he  hears,  are  numerous  and  bad  along  the 
Arkansas, 

He  reaches  Washington  safe  and  sound,  of  course ; 
starts  back  for  New  Mexico;  and  arrives  there 
in  October,  1848.  Figure  yourself,  if  you  like, 
as  chief  actor  in  a  quarter  of  a  century  of  such  trav- 
eling as  was  done  by  Kit  Carson.  His  travels  are 
given  thus  in  detail  that  we  may  have  just  estimate 
of  the  man  of  those  days,  of  the  tremendous  demands 
upon  his  courage  and  endurance.  Only  the  West 
could  produce  such  a  man. 

Now  we  may  picture  Kit  Carson  in  the  fourth 
stage  of  his  career,  as  settler  and  rancher.  He  was 
at  home  now,  but  he  knew  no  rest.  He  fought  the 
Apaches,  and  guided  Colonel  Beall  against  that  tribe 
and  the  Comanches,  in  an  endeavor  to  round  up 
all  the  Mexican  prisoners  in  the  hands  of  the  In- 
dians, who  were  to  be  returned  to  their  own  fire- 
sides. After  this  little  expedition  Carson  was  once 
more  a  man  without  an  occupation.  There  was  a  lull 


KIT  CAESON  253 

in  fighting  and  scouting.  Having  no  profession 
except  that  of  trapper  and  of  guide,  he  cast  about 
him  and  once  more  determined  to  be  a  ranchman. 
He  and  his  friend  Maxwell  established  a  ranch  fifty 
miles  west  of  Taos,  at  what  is  known  as  Kayado  or 
Kezado.  Again  he  joined  an  expedition  against  the 
Apaches,  a  day  and  a  half  to  the  southeast,  a  disas- 
trous expedition,  in  which  he  was  not  leader,  but 
might  better  have  been.  At  another  time  he  helped 
chase  some  Apache  thieves,  and  assisted  in  the  kill- 
ing of  five  of  them,  being  always  desired  in  these 
errands  of  swift  punishment.  Our  army  could  never 
catch  the  Apaches,  the  Nez  Perces,  the  Comanches, 
the  Crows,  the  Blackfeet.  Kit  Carson  always  could 
and  did. 

This  Indian  fighting,  however,  did  not  bring  money 
to  his  coffers;  therefore  in  1850  we  find  him  and  a 
partner  taking  a  band  of  horses  from  New  Mexico  up 
to  Fort  Laramie,  a  journey  of  five  hundred  miles.* 
After  this  followed  some  more  horse  stealing  on  the 
part  of  the  Indians,  yet  more  punitive  expeditions, 
and  considerable  amateur  sheriffing,  for  which  ser- 
vice Carson  had  become  a  necessity  in  the  district. 
He  was  not  afraid.  He  could  read  the  signs  of  the 
trails.     He  could  ride. 


♦The  beginning  of  the  New  Mexican  branch  of  the  Long  Trail, 
later  to  become  famous  in  the  cattle  trade. 


254;  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

In  1851  Carson  and  Maxwell  tried  their  hands  at 
a  bit  of  the  Santa  Fe  trade  themselves,  although  this 
was  long  after  the  glory  of  the  old-time  wagon  trade 
has  departed.  They  got  a  train  load  of  goods  at  St. 
Louis,  and  started  westward  up  the  Arkansas,  after 
the  old-fashioned  way.  They  met  the  Cheyennes, 
always  ambitious  to  acquire  tax  title  of  the  plains  to 
such  valuable  property  as  this.  Carson  knew  that 
the  protestations  of  these  Cheyennes  were  not  to 
be  believed,  and  told  the  Indians  that  they  could 
neither  deceive  him  nor  frighten  him;  yet  with  diplo- 
macy equal  to  his  courage,  he  edged  on  and  on  for 
three  doubtful  days,  farther  and  farther  to  the  west- 
ward, and  so  at  last  came  safe.  Kit  Carson  was  no 
blusterer  and  no  swashbuckler,  but  was  first  and  last 
of  all  a  good  business  man.  He  knew  that  it  was 
good  judgment  to  keep  out  of  a  fight  whenever  pos- 
sible, which  he  did. 

And  now  comes  one  of  the  most  romantic,  indeed 
one  of  the  most  pathetic  pages  in  the  whole  history 
of  this  brave  man,  if  not  in  all  Western  history.  Ke- 
belling  at  the  tameness  of  ranching  and  horse  trading 
and  wagon  trafficking,  longing  once  more  for  the 
freedom  of  the  trapping  trail.  Kit  sent  word  about 
among  his  old  friends,  the  free  traders  of  the 
Eocldes.  A  party  of  eighteen  old-time  long-haired 
men  was  made  up ;  and  thus  they  sallied  forth,  with 


KIT  CAESON  256 

rifle  and  ax  and  pack  and  jingling  trap  chains,  in 
the  fashion  of  the  past,  making  once  more  deep 
into  the  heart  of  the  Rockies.  They  visited  the  Ar- 
kansas, the  Green,  the  Grand,  all  the  loved  and  lova- 
ble parks  of  the  mountains.  They  came  back  through 
the  Eaton  Mountains,  bearing  with  them  abundant 
fur.  They  said  that  it  was  their  last  trail;  that  they 
had  seen  the  old  streams  they  loved,  in  order  that 
they  might  ^^shake  hands  with  them  and  say  good- 
by !"  This  expedition  was  made  for  sheer  love  of  the 
old  life,  which  they  knew  had  now  gone  by  forever. 
The  settlement  of  the  We&t  was  at  hand,  and  this  they 
knew  ver}^  well.  No  wonder  that  it  brought  them 
sadness!  We  to-day  may  grieve  in  some  measure 
over  the  dignity  and  glory  of  those  days  gone  by. 

We  might  believe  that  by  this  Kit  Carson  would 
have  had  enough  traveling,  and  would  have  been 
content  to  bound  his  ambitions  by  the  little  moun- 
tain valleys  that  lay  about  him  in  New  Mexico. 
Not  so,  however;  for  we  find  his  next  exploit  to 
be  the  unusual  one  of  a  sheep  drive  to  far-of!  Cali- 
fornia. He  assembled  a  band  of  six  thousand  five 
hundred  sheep,  and  following  by  easy  stages  along 
the  old  mountain  trails  with  which  he  was  so  famil- 
iar, at  length  arrived  with  his  herd,  in  August,  1853, 
at  his  far-off  destination.    He  sold  his  sheep  at  the 


256  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

good  price  of  five  dollars  and  a  half  a  head,  this 
being  the  most  considerable  and  most  profitable 
speculation  in  which  he  had  ever  engaged  in  all 
his  life. 

He  remained  for  a  time  in  California  and  looked 
about  him,  but  he  found  California  no  longer  a  wil- 
derness occupied  by  wandering  and  infrequent  trap- 
pers, but  a  land  overflowing  with  gold,  and  ten- 
anted with  a  restless  and  swiftly  increasing  popula- 
tion. He  saw  a  San  Francisco  of  fifty  thousand  souls 
spring  up  as  by  magic  within  sight  of  those  two  little 
hills  of  the  Coast  Range  that  had  marked  the  land 
of  salvation  for  Fremont  and  his  party  in  their  starv- 
ing journey  across  the  Sierras.  He  found  himself 
a  hero  in  this  new  and  busy  San  Francisco;  but  he 
was  ever  unfamiliar  with  the  art  of  heroing,  so  pres- 
ently he  left  the  town  and  returned  again  to  New 
Mexico,  traveling  this  time  by  the  old  trail  to  the 
copper  mines,  by  which  he  had  led  Fremont  in  his 
first  journey  east  from  southern  California. 

Carson  was  now  living  in  a  West  experiencing  sud- 
den and  general  change.  The  old  West  was  nearly 
gone,  and  all  its  ancient  ways.  The  government  at 
Washington  was  familiar  with  the  doings  of  this 
quiet  little  man  of  !N'ew  Mexico,  and  it  was  suggested 
that  he  would  make  a  good  Indian  agent  for  the  dis- 
trict of  "Xew  Mexico.     Witness,  therefore,  the  last 


KIT  CARSON  257 

Btage  of  Kit  Carson's  career,  that  of  counselor  and 
guide  to  those  savage  peoples  whose  enemy  and  con- 
queror he  had  been. 

At  this  time  the  Utes  and  the  Jicarilla  Apaches 
were  rebellious,  and  one  of  Carson's  first  acts  was 
to  ride  two  hundred  and  fifty  miles  into  the  Ute 
country.  He  led  the  forces  that  broke  up  the 
coalition  between  the  Utes  and  the  Apaches.  It  was 
Carson,  old  Indian  fighter,  who  was  one  of  the  first  to 
say  that  the  Indians  must  be  '^rounded  up  and  taught 
to  till  the  soil.^'  This  was  his  belief  even  at  the  time 
when  he  acted  as  guide  for  Colonel  St.  Vrain  and 
his  New  Mexican  volunteers,  in  the  expedition  that 
routed  the  Indians  at  the  Saugache  Pass. 

The  Indians  that  had  feared  Carson  in  the  past 
came  at  length  to  trust  him,  and  indeed  to  love  him. 
He  was  known  as  "father"  by  many  a  warlike  tribe. 
Thus  he  became  the  friend  of  the  Cheyennes,  the  Ar- 
apahoes  and  the  Eaowas,  peoples  scattered  over  a 
wide  range  of  country.  Behold  now,  therefore,  our 
trapper,  guide  and  scout  fairly  settled  in  life.  Re- 
member also  that  he  was  not  the  guide  of  Fremont 
in  that  last  fatal,  starving  expedition  when,  blun- 
dering foolishly  once  more  into  the  wilderness  of 
the  Rockies  in  the  winter-time,  and  undertaking  the 
wild  project  of  crossing  eight  feet  of  snow  with  a 
pack-train,  that  officer  once  more  came  near  pay- 


258  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

ing  the  penalty  of  his  ignorance  by  his  own  life 
and  the  lives  of  all  his  party. 

It  was  Bill  Williams  who  was  guide  this  time, 
a  Bill  Williams  that  had  not  been  trapping 
on  the  Del  Norte  for  years,  and  who  might  have  been 
forgiven  memory  less  keen  than  had  been  Carson's 
when  he  saw  the  two  little  peaks,  far  away  in  the 
Coast  Eange,  in  that  other  starving  march  of  this 
same  leader.  It  was  to  Taos  that  the  enfeebled  sur- 
vivors of  Fremont's  disastrous  expedition  found  their 
way  in  search  of  help.  If  Eat  Carson  reproached  his 
former  "leader"  it  is  not  on  record.  Never  was  there 
a  leader  whose  follies  won  him  greater  praise. 

Later  in  his  life,  leaving  the  United  States  serv- 
ice as  Indian  agent,  Carson  was  made  colonel  of  a 
regiment  of  New  Mexican  volunteers,  during  the 
War  of  the  Eebellion.  He  was  brevetted  brigadier- 
general  of  volunteers.  In  the  closing  yeara  of  his 
life  he  was  known  as  "the  general"  among  his 
friends,  just  as  he  was  always  known  as  "father" 
among  the  Indians  who  dwelt  about  him. 

Kit  Carson's  death  occurred  at  Fort  Lyon,  Colo- 
rado, May  twenty-third,  1869,  the  immediate  cause 
being  an  aneurism  of  the  aorta.  Eight  years  before, 
Carson  had  sustained  a  bad  fall,  and  had  been  dragged 
for  a  distance  by  his  horse.  From  this  hurt  he  never 
fully  recovered.     ^'Were  it  not  for  this,"  said  he, 


KIT  CAKSON  259 

meaning  his  mishap,  "I  might  live  to  be  one  hundred 
years  of  age/'  Yet,  knowing  that  he  was  doomed, 
he  lived  bravely  and  sweetly  as  ever,  and  to  the  end 
remained  as  unpretentious  as  during  his  early  days. 

'^t  was  wonderful,"  says  the  chronicler  who  saw  his 
last  hours  and  who  heard  most  of  the  biography  of  Kit 
Carson  read  in  the  presence  of  the  hero  himself,  *'it 
was  wonderful  to  read  of  the  thrilling  deeds  and 
narrow  escapes  of  this  man,  and  then  look  at  the 
quiet,  mlodest,  retiring  hut  dignified  little  man  who 
had  done  so  much.  He  was  one  of  nature's  noble- 
men, a  true  man  in  all  that  constitutes  manhood, 
pure,  honorable,  truthful  and  sincere,  of  noble  im- 
pulses; a  knight-errant,  ever  ready  to  defend  the 
weak  against  the  strong  without  reward  other  than 
his  own  conscience.  His  was  a  great  contempt  for 
noisy  braggarts  of  every  sort." 

So,  surrounded  by  his  friends,  facing  the  impend- 
ing end  with  his  customary  bravery.  Kit  Carson 
passed  away.  There  was  a  struggle  and  a  fatal  hem- 
orrhage. '^Doctor — compadre, — adiosT  he  cried. 
"This  is  the  last  of  the  general,"  said  his  friend. 
So  passed  one  of  the  last  of  the  great  Westerners. 

It  was  nearly  time  now  for  all  the  old  mountain 
men  to  put  up  the  rifle.  The  day  of  the  plow  was 
following  hard  upon  them. 


CHAPTER  II 


THE  SANTA  FE   TKAIL 


To-day  we  think  in  straight  lines.  We  belieye,  ig- 
norantly,  that  our  forefathers  moved  directly  west- 
ward from  their  formier  homes.  We  do  not  ask  how 
they  did  it,  but  think  that  in  some  way  they  must 
have  done  so.  Dwellers  in  Chicago  think  of  New 
York,  and  it  means  New  York  in  a  straight  line  due 
east.  They  think  of  California,  and  it  implies  a 
straight  line  due  west.  To  us  of  to-day  all  railroads 
run  without  curves,  and  are  governed  only  by  time- 
schedules,  which  annually  grow  shorter.  Geography  is 
well-nigh  a  lost  art.  Indeed,  there  is  but  little  use  for 
it,  since  the  time-tables  of  the  great  railways  answer 
all  our  questions  so  conclusively.  To-day  it  mat- 
ters not  to  us  what  may  be  the  course  of  a  journey; 
the  sole  question  is  as  to  the  time  that  journey  will 
require.  The  railroad  men  do  our  thinking  for  us. 
We  do  not  concern  ourselves  with  how  those  good, 
but  somewhat  old-fashioned  folk,  our  ancestors,  got 
about  in  a  country  that  once  was  large.  We  care 
not  at  all  for  matters  of  down-stream  or  up-stream. 

In  a  general  way,  therefore,  we  are  prone  to  be- 
260 


THE  SANTA  FE  TRAIL  261' 

lieve  that  the  way  from  the  Alleghanies  to  the  Mis- 
souri was  in  a  straight  line.  It  was  not  so.  We 
think  that  the  way  to  the  Rockies  and  across  them 
was  equally  straight,  because  the  railways  now  make 
it  so  easy.  Yet  as  a  matter  of  fact  the  railways 
proceeded,  without  much  difficulty  as  to  exploration, 
to  be  sure,  for  nothing  new  was  left  for  them  to  dis- 
cover, yet  in  hesitating  and  halting  steps  westward, 
shortening  the  old  trails,  destroying  the  old  history, 
wiping  out  the  old  geography  of  the  West. 

All  America  can  remember  the  days  when  we  were 
agitated  by  the  tremendous  problem  of  a  line  of  rails 
across  the  American  continent,  a  feat  so  long  re- 
garded as  chimerical.  We  knew  of  California  and 
we  wished  for  a  road  thither,  had  long  wished  for  it. 
But  many  years  before  we  had  begun  to  dream  of 
an  iron  road,  and  many  years  after  we  had  dreamed 
of  it,  we  made  our  way  from  the  Missouri  to  the 
Rockies,  over  the  Rockies  to  the  Pacific,  by  the 
same  methods  that  had  brought  us  to  the  heads 
of  all  our  Western  rivers.  We  used  the  pack-horse 
and  the  wagon  train.  Those  were  the  days  of  the 
heroically  great  transcontinental  trails.  It  is  inter- 
esting to  study  these  ancient  land  routes;  and  for  our 
purposes  we  shall  start  the  wagon  roads  at  the  Mis- 
souri River,  and  shall  speak  chiefly  of  the  two  historic 


262  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

and  great  Western  pathways,  that  by  the  Arkansas 
and  that  by  the  Platte. 

Of  these  two  great  land  trails  west  of  the  Missouri, 
one,  broken  midway,  does  not  deserve  actually  the 
name  of  transcontinental  trail.  This  was  the  old 
Santa  Fe  trail,  which  could  be  called  continuous 
only  as  far  as  the  Spanish  province  of  Xew  Mexico. 
Commerce  got  westward  even  so  far  as  California 
in  some  fashion,  now  and  again,  from  Taos  and  the 
old  city  of  Santa  Fe,  but  Spanish  trails  and  the  old 
trapping  roads  west  of  Xew  Mexico  were  commonly 
concerned  with  the  pack-train  and  not  the  wagon. 

The  other  overland  trail,  and  the  greatest  of  all 
American  roads,  if  we  measure  length  and  impor- 
tance as  well,  was  the  ancient  Oregon  trail  up  the 
Platte,  over  the  South  Pass  and  down  the  Columbia; 
a  trail  forgotten  by  most  of  the  young  men  of  to-day, 
and  existing  no  more  to  terrify  the  young  women 
whom  young  men  marry,  as  they  did  in  the  times  of 
our  fathers,  when  moving  West  meant  tearing  out 
the  heart 

As  to  the  theory  of  straight  lines.  Lieutenant  Pike 
tells  us  that  the  first  men  to  reach  Santa  Fe  did  not 
go  straight  westward,  but  also  wandered  up  the 
aboriginal  highway  of  the  Platte  valley,  over  what 
was  later  to  be  the  course  of  the  Oregon  trail,  turn- 
ing to  the  southward  when  far  up  the  stream,  and 


THE  SANTA  FE  TRAIL  263 

following  the  South  Fork  of  the  Platte  down  into 
the  Rockies,  which  would  bring  the  traveler  within 
wilderness-touch  of  the  Spanish  settlements.  La 
Lande,  the  perfidious  trader,  who  so  sadly  left  in  the 
lurch  his  patron,  the  merchant  Morrison  of  Kaskas- 
kia,  and  took  up  his  permanent  abode  in  Santa 
Fe,  is  thought  to  have  reached  that  city,  in  the  year 
1804,  by  this  route;  and  it  is  known  that  James 
Purcell  (or  James  Pursley,  as  Pike  has  the  spelling) 
was  directed  to  Santa  Fe  in  the  year  1805  by  some 
Indians  whom  he  met  on  the  upper  Platte. 

This  route  by  the  Platte  was  not,  however,  either 
the  permanent  or  the  original  one.  Indeed,  the  first 
expedition  between  the  Spanish  and  the  American 
settlements  came,  strangely  enough,  from  the  west, 
and  not  from  the  east,  and  was  undertaken  by  the 
Spaniards  as  early  as  1720.  Then,  in  1739,  the 
Mallet  brothers,  Frenchmen  from  the  settlements 
along  the  Mississippi,  started  for  New  Mexico  by 
the  strange  route  of  the  upper  Missouri  River,  getting 
far  up  into  the  big  bend  of  the  Missouri  before  they 
discovered  that  they  were  going  quite  the  wrong  way ! 
Their  belief  that  the  Spanish  settlements  could  be 
reached  by  way  of  the  head  streams  of  the  Missouri 
is  strange  confirmation  of  our  doctrine  that  early 
traveling  man  ever  clung  to  the  waterways.  The 
river — ^it  would  lead  anywhere!     The  Mallet  party 


264  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

returned  in  1740,  some  of  them,  by  way  of  tlie 
Arkansas  Eiver,  which  presently  brought  them  out 
at  New  Orleans! 

We  may  therefore  discover  that  neither  the  Mis- 
souri nor  the  Platte  could  have  been  called  the  ac- 
cepted liighway  into  the  lower  West  at  the  time  Lieu- 
tenant Pike  set  out  to  find  the  headwaters  of  the  Red 
Eiver.  There  is  a  shrewd  doubt  as  to  Pike's  innocence 
in  getting  over  on  the  head  of  the  Rio  Grande  instead 
of  the  Red  River.  It  was  at  least  a  lucky  mistake; 
and  his  captivity  among  the  Spaniards  was  productive 
of  very  good  results  to  the  United  States  later 
on ,  one  of  its  most  important  results  being  his  sug- 
gesting the  route  along  the  Arkansas,  instead  of 
the  Platte,  for  the  west-bound  travelers.  It  was 
strong-legged,  stout-hearted  Zebulon  who  told  of  the 
profits  of  the  possible  Spanish  trade,  and  credit  is- 
usually  given  him  for  first  outlining  the  historic 
trail  along  the  Arkansas. 

It  grew  shorter  and  shorter,  this  wagon  trail  to  the 
West,  as  the  traders  came  to  know  tlie  country. 
The  government  surveyed  a  fine  way  for  the  cara- 
vans, which  took  them  around  the  dangerous  Cimar- 
ron  desert,  and  clung  to  the  waters  a  trifle  longer; 
yet  the  travelers  would  have  none  of  it,  but  built 
their  trail  so  direct  from  Independence  to  Santa  Fe 
that  not  even  those  air-line  lovers,  the  railway  engi- 


THE  SANTA  FE  TRAIL  265 

neers,  coiild  so  very  mucli  improve  it  when  they  came 
to  make  their  iron  trail  between  those  two  points. 

One  finds  something  uncanny  when  he  reflects 
upon  the  discoveries  of  these  Western  regions.  The 
ancient  ways  seem  to  have  lain  ready  and  wait- 
ing, the  lines  of  travel  simply  falling  into  the  fore- 
ordained plan,  so  that  there  remains  no  extraor- 
dinary credit  to  any  venturer,  no  matter  how  early. 
For  instance,  we  know  that  our  hardy  young  soldiers, 
Lewis  and  Clark,  to  whom  we  habitually  ascribe  the 
credit  of  being  the  first  white  men  up  the  great 
waterway  of  the  Missouri,  were  preceded  by  half  a 
century  by  the  Frenchman,  Sieur  de  la  Verendrye, 
who  took  his  two  sons  and  started  west  by  way  of 
the  Great  Lakes  in  1742,  jumped  from  the  Eed  River 
of  the  [N'orth  to  the  Mandan  villages  on  the  Missouri, 
ajid  explored  the  region  along  the  Missouri,  the  Yel- 
lowstone and  the  Bighorn  rivers.  Just  one  hundred 
years  before  Fremont  '^'discovered"  the  Rockies! 

De  la  Verendrj^e  is  thought  to  have  been  the  first 
man  of  the  North  to  see  the  Rockies ;  yet  back  of  him 
we  have  Nicollet  and  Champlain,  and  all  those  hardy 
ancients  who  sought  cheerfully  and  hopefully  for  the 
China  Sea  by  way  of  the  Green  Bay  portage,  and  the 
Wisconsin  and  Minnesota  rivers,  in  search  of  the 
fabled  ''Asian  Strait,'^  which  later  was  practically 


266  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

materialized  in  the  interiocking  Western  rivers  of 
America. 

As  to  Pike's  journey  across  the  plains,  we  must 
know  that  the  Spaniards  had  sent  out  an  ex- 
pedition, under  Malgares,  to  meet  him  or  antici- 
pate him.  The  Spanish  leader  who  thus  ventured 
boldly  so  far  to  the  east  to  head  off  this  dreaded 
invasion  of  the  Nori;hem  whites,  and  to  set  the 
Indians  against  them,  must  have  traveled  some- 
what along  this  same  pre-ordained  trail  of  the  Ar- 
kansas. Not  all  Spain  could  keep  the  feet  of  the 
young  Anglo-Saxons  out  of  that  trail.  There  were 
always  the  adventurers;  and  there  were  always  the 
trails  there,  ready,  waiting,  expectant,  prepared  for 
them.  There  is  no  reading  so  thrilling  as  the  bare 
truth  about  our  West;  and  the  most  thrilling  part  of 
it  is  the  awesome  feeling  that  our  venturers  were 
after  all  themselves  but  puppets  in  a  grim  and  awful 
game.  There  lay  the  Missouri,  the  Platte,  the  Ar- 
kansas; and  stretching  out  to  meet  them  reached  the 
Columbia  and  the  Colorado.  It  was  appointed,  it 
was  foregone! 

Among  those  to  go  out  early  into  the  unknown 
Southwest,  after  Lieutenant  Pike  had  told  ns  some 
few  things  regarding  the  pueblos  of  old  Spain  among 
the  mountains  of  the  Eockies,  were  the  fur  trader 
Phillibert,  and  the  traders  Chouteau  and  De  Munn, 


THE  SANTA  FE  TRAIL  267 

of  St.  Louis,  who  bought  out  Phillibert's  goods  and 
men  in  the  Rockies.  Phillibert  had  planned  a 
rendezvous  on  Huerfano  Creek.  This  was  in  1815, 
the  year  following  that  in  which  Phillibert  had 
made  his  first  trip  into  that  Western  region. 

These  St.  Louis  men  met  the  officials  of  Santa 
Fe,  and  were  warned  out  of  the  country.  Naively, 
since  they  could  not  trade  in  New  Mexico,  they 
started  for  the  Columbia  River,  by  way  of  the  high 
mountains  of  Colorado ;  and  the  mountains,  of  course, 
stopped  them.  They  fell  back  on  the  Arkansas,  were 
caught  by  the  Spaniards,  had  their  goods  confiscated, 
and  so  lost  three  years  of  time  as  well.  Not  even  this 
pointed  advice  as  to  Spanish  preferences  served  to 
hold  back  the  west-bound  men,  and  no  doubt  they 
sent  out  some  party  for  Santa  Fe  every  year  there- 
after, until  they  had  their  way,  and  until  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  grasp  was  fixed  upon  that  sleepy  old  South- 
west, which  lay  winking  in  the  sun  a  couple  of  cen- 
turies belated  by  the  way. 

The  Spaniards  were  suspicious,  as  are  ever  the 
slothful,  and  they  made  a  practice  of  imprisoning 
the  whites  that  got  down  into  their  country.  They 
imprisoned  Pike,  they  imprisoned  Merriwether,  an 
intrepid  trader  who  reached  that  country  in  1819; 
and  history  tells  us  how,  in  1812,  they  imprisoned 
the  first  party  of  the  white  traders  to  venture  into 


268  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

[N'ew  Mexico  after  the  return  of  Lieutenant  Pike, 
the  twelve  men  who  made  up  the  party  of  Baird, 
McKnight  and  Chambers,  commonly  called  the 
party  of  McKnight,  Beard  and  Chambers.  This 
gallant  little  company  they  kept  in  the  fearsome 
penitentiary  at  Chihuahua  for  nine  long  and  weary 
years, — a.  fate  terrible  enough,  one  would  certainly 
think,  to  warn  away  all  other  adventurers  from  a 
neighborhood  so  hostile. 

As  to  this  first  and  most  unfortunate  of  the  early 
trading  expeditions  to  the  Southwest,  that  of  Baird, 
McKnight  and  Chambers,  there  is  first-hand  in- 
formation in  the  form  of  a  personal  letter  from  J. 
M.  Baird,  of  Louisville,  Kentucky,  a  grandson  of  the 
early  trader  that  helped  to  lead  the  way  of  com- 
merce across  the  plains.     Mr.  Baird  writes : 

^^As  to  the  expedition  of  Baird,  Chambers  and 
McKnight,  it  is  often  spoken  of  as  that  of 
^McKnight,  Beard  and  Chambers.'  Gregg,  in  his 
book  ^The  Commerce  of  the  Prairies,'  published  in 
1846  (I  think),  first  mentioned  the  matter.  He 
derived  his  information  from  James  Baird's  sons, 
and  they  were  much  disgusted  to  have  him  print  the 
name  'Beard.'  All  other  writers  seem  to  have  de- 
rived their  particulars  from  him.  James  Baird  was 
my  grandfather.  He  was  personally  known  to  Lieut. 
Zebulon  Pike,  had  known  him  at  Fort  Duquesne  and 


THE  SANTA  FE  TRAIL  269 

at  Erie.  Baird  went  to  St.  Louis  in  1810,  where  he 
again  met  Lieutenant  Pike  upon  his  return  from 
Mexico,  and  learned  from  him  the  possibilities  of 
trade  with  that  country. 

'TTpon  hearing  of  the  success  of  the  Hidalgo  rev- 
olution, and  believing  the  embargo  upon  trade  with 
the  United  States  raised,  he  organized  a  venture  with 
Chambers  and  McKnight,  left  St.  Charles,  Mo.,  May 
1,  1812,  and  reached  Santa  Fe  in  regular  course,  to 
find  the  embargo  rigorously  enforced.  He  was  ar- 
rested and  imprisoned  in  Chihuahua  prison  for  nine 
years  and  three  months,  until  released  by  Iturbide  in 
1821.  Chambers  and  McKnight  started  back  at  once. 
McKnight  was  killed  by  the  Indians  on  the  Arkansas 
Eiver.  Chambers  succeeded  in  getting  back  to  St. 
Louis.  Baird  started  back  two  months  later,  could, 
find  no  company,  and  rode  alone  from  Santa  Fe  to 
St.  Louis.  This  ride  has  been  credited  to  Bicknell 
and  one  Kennedy  or  Kendall,  but  James  Baird  was 
the  man  that  did  it. 

"Baird  and  Chambers  organized  a  second  expedi^ 
tion  in  1822.  They  started  too  late,  and  were  caught 
in  a  blizzard  at  the  crossing  of  the  Arkansas,  where 
their  animals  froze  to  death.  They  were  compelled 
to  remain  the  entire  winter  upon  the  island  at  that 
place.  It  was  Baird  and  Chambers'  second  expedi- 
tion that  made  the    caches    near  there   (in  1822), 


270  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

and  near  where  Dodge  City  now  stands.  Inman  in 
his  ^Old  Santa  Fe  Trail/  chapter  3,  says  Bicknell* 
crossed  the  river  at  the  Caches  in  1812.  No  other 
caches  were  made  in  that  vicinity.  Bicknell  was  a 
trader  with  the  latan  Indians  and  did  not  go  into 
Mexico  until  after  Baird  and  Chambers'  second  ven- 
ture, which  was  made  in  1822.  However,  it  was 
through  some  of  Bicknell' s  men  writing  from  Frank- 
lin, Mo.,  to  my  grandmother,  in  1816,  tliat  she- 
learned  of  grandfather's  fate,  they  saying  that  they 
heard  of  it  from  the  Indians. 

'^aird.  Chambers  and  McKnight  followed  the 
course  marked  for  them  by  Lieutenant  Pike,  and 
that  course  became  the  great  Santa  Fe  trail.  The 
Atchison,  Topeka  &  Santa  Fe  R.  R.  follows  practically 
the  same  course.  If  any  one  is  entitled  to  credit  for  the 
selection  of  the  route.  Lieutenant  Pike  ought  ta 
have  it.  However,  my  purpose  is  to  ask  you  to  cor- 
rect the  name  Beard  to  read  Baird.  If  one  wiU 
refer  to  ^American  State  Papers,'  Vol,  4,  folio  207, 
and  Executive  Papers,  p.  197,  8th  Vol.,  15th  Con- 
gress, he  will  see  that  it  is  Baird." 

This  communication  would  seem  to  a  certain  ex- 
tent to  discount  the  claims  on  reputation  of  William 
Becknell,   generally   known   as   the    ^''father   of   the 


•The  spelling   of   this   name  is  by   most  authorities   given  as 
"Becknell,"  which  is  thought  to  be  correct. 


THE  SANTA  PE  TRAIL  271 

Santa  F6  trail."  It  ascribes  the  credit  for  the 
original  selection  of  the  Arkansas  Eiver  route  to 
Pike,  with  what  justice  we  may  ourselves  determine 
as  well  as  any.  Our  venturesome  Southerners,  of  the 
Baird,  McKjiight  and  Chambers  party,  had  lain  in 
jail  for  nine  years  before  John  McKnight,  the 
brother  of  Robert  McKnight,  in  the  year  1821,  under- 
took the  long  journey  to  Chihuahua,  which  seems  to 
have  resulted  in  the  setting  free  of  all  these  Ameri- 
cans. Coming  back  to  the  United  States  over  the 
Arkansas  River  trail,  Baird  and  the  two  McKnights 
met  the  Ohio  man,  Hugh  Glenn,  and  his  associate  or 
friend,  Jacob  Fowler,  who  were  already  at  Taos, 
regardless  of  the  ill-fortune  of  their  predecessors  in 
the  hazardous  game  of  prairie  commerce.  Becknell 
himself  did  not  start  out  until  1821,  and  he  did  not 
intend  to  trade  in  Santa  Fe,  but  only  went  thence 
after  he  had  met  some  Mexicans  on  the  headwaters 
of  the  Arkansas,  who  persuaded  him  to  take  his 
goods  to  Santa  Fe  instead  of  trading  them  among  the 
Indians.  Hugh  Glenn  and  Becknell  were  thus  both 
at  Santa  Fe  during  the  winter  of  1821-22. 

That  following  summer  Braxton  Cooper  and  his 
sons,  as  well  as  Becknell, made  trips  to  Santa  Fe,and  it 
seems  to  have  been  on  this  second  trip  that  Becknell 
attained  the  distinction  commonly  accorded  him. 
He  took  three  wagons  through  to  Santa  Fe,  and  in- 


272  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

stead  of  hugging  the  Arkansas  clear  out  to  the 
mountains,  he  struck  off  southwest  toward  San 
Miguel,  by  way  of  the  Cimarron  desert,  the  risky  but 
shorter  route  to  which  the  later  traders  adhered  ever 
after,  in  spite  of  sun^eys  and  all  else.  It  is  really 
only  upon  the  ground  of  his  wagons  and  this  cut- 
off angle  that  Becknell  is  entitled  to  the  glory  of 
his  title  as  "father  of  the  Santa  Fe  trail." 

Our  prisoners,  who  nine  years  before  had  taken 
the  chance  of  the  far-off  Southwestern  trade,  were 
willing  to  take  another  chance,  for  no  sooner  had 
they  reached  the  States  than  they  outfitted  and 
started  back  again  for  the  Mexican  trade.  Their 
second  party,  that  which  made  the  famous  caches 
referred  to  in  the  grandson's  letter  above,  was  made 
in  1822.  By  that  time  there  was  little  glory  left 
for  any  one;  and  indeed,  when  we  come  to  sift  it, 
there  was  never  very  much  glory  in  any  part  of  the 
history  of  the  Santa  Fe  trail.  It  was  not  a  pathway 
of  heroes.  The  true  hero  trail  lay  farther  to  the 
north,  as  we  shall  presently  see. 

The  first  mergers,  the  first  combinations  of  capital 
ever  made  in  the  commerce  of  America  began  here 
on  the  far-off  prairies,  when  the  traders  of  the 
Arkansas  began  to  band  up  and  pool  their 
outfits  for  mutual  protection.  The  strength  of 
these  great  companies  rendered  the  danger  of  at- 


THE  SANTA  FE  TRAIL  273 

tack  by  Indians  very  slight,  and  it  is  a  fact 
that  but  few  lives  were  ever  lost  on  the  Santa 
Fe  trail,  scarce  a  dozen  in  a  dozen  years.  It 
was  indeed  irony  of  fate  that  splendid  Jedediali 
Smith,  the  hero  of  such  tremendous  undertakings  in 
the  mountains  of  the  Northwest,  should  meet  his  fate 
while  hunting  for  a  water  hole  in  the  hated  desert 
of  the  Cimarron,  afar  down  in  the  dry  Southwest.* 

By  1824  the  Santa  Fe  trade  was  well  organized. 
The  route  was  proved  feasible,  and  the  business  as- 
sured of  profit,  wherefore  many  went  into  it,  and 
presently  the  old  trail  became  a  great  road,  later  to 
be  very  prominent  in  the  history  of  the  West.  The 
Spaniards  did  their  best  to  keep  on  both  sides  of 
the  fence  in  this  matter.  They  wanted  the  goods 
of  the  Americans,  but  hated  the  Americans  them- 
Belves,  They  tried  to  kill  the  trade  with  excessive 
frontier  duties,  yet  allowed  smuggling  and  bribery 
to  any  limit;  and  these  latter  two  industries  were 
accepted  as  part  of  the  conditions  of  the  trade.  The 
greatest  loss  of  life  began  to  occur  when  the  fight- 
ing Texans  from  below,  actuated  by  a  desire  for  re- 
venge and  pillage,  began  to  push  up  and  to  harass  the 
commerce  which  was  proving  so  profitable  to  Mexico, 
in  spite  of  Mexico's  vacillation. 


*V.    Chapter    IV,    Vol.    Ill;  "Early    Explorers    of    the   Trans- 
Missouri." 


274  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

These  fighting  Texans  traveled  far  to  the  north  of 
the  trail,  indeed,  and  followed  the  Mexicans  into 
their  villages,  where  they  killed  them  in  numbers. 
Texas,  we  must  remember,  was  not  yet  a  state,  and 
little  answer  was  made  to  the  wail  of  the  thrifty 
traders,  who  besought  the  United  States  government 
to  give  them  protection  against  the  Texans.  The 
latter  did  some  things  not  altogether  pleasant  to 
recount,  but  were  for  the  most  part  serving  nearly 
right  the  government  of  the  United  States,  which 
could  so  long  hesitate  in  accepting  Houston's  gift 
of  Texas,  the  ^*hride  adorned  for  her  espousal;" 
which,  indeed,  so  long  hesitated  to  believe  that  there 
was  or  could  be  a  West  really  great.  Small  indeed 
were  some  of  the  "great"  men  of  that  time;  and 
small  are  some  of  our  great  men  to-day. 

The  common  belief  is  that  all  the  capital  engaged 
in  this  trade  toward  the  Southwest  was  American  cap- 
ital, and  that  the  enterprises  ran  all  one  way.  This 
was  not  the  case,  for  by  1843  the  Mexican  capital 
embarked  in  the  commerce  to  the  Spanish  colonies 
was  about  equal  to  that  of  the  Americans.  The 
trade  grew  steadily,  even  subject  as  it  was  to  the 
caprice  of  Mexican  governments,  and  of  Texas 
privateers  on  the  high  seas  of  the  prairies. 

We  learn  that  in  1831  a  party  of  two  hundred  per- 
sons, with  one  hundred   wagons   and   two   hundred 


THE  SANTA  FE  TRAIL  275 

thousand  dollars'  worth  of  goods,  started  for  Santa 
Fe.  This  party  was  notable  in  that  one  of  its  mem- 
bers was  Josiah  Gregg,  a  level-headed,  shrewd  man, 
who  was  later  to  become  famous  as  the  historian 
of  the  Santa  Fe  trail.  Nearly  all  the  later 
histories  of  that  highway  and  its  peculiari- 
ties are  based  upon  Gregg's  able  work;  which  fact 
he  himself  points  out  with  a  certain  plaintiveness  in 
his  later  years  (1846),  stating  that  pillagers  of  his 
papers  did  not  always  stop  to  give  him  credit.  Gregg 
was  a  big  man,  a  thinker,  a  man  whose  sound  sense 
would  succeed  in  any  time.  One  likens  him  to  the 
good,  sensible  business  man  of  to-day,  the  mainstay 
of  our  republic,  the  practical  conductor  of  affairs. 

One  detail  will  serve  to  show  how  much  in  ad- 
vance he  was  of  his  time.  In  1846  we  find  the 
Easterner,  Francis  Parkman,  and  his  friend  Shaw, 
killing  scores  of  the  great  bisons  of  the  plains  for 
no  better  purpose  than  the  securing  of  the  tail  for  a 
trophy.  It  makes  one  blush  to  read,  of  such  waste- 
ful barbarity  as  this,  which  could  kill  tons  and  tons 
of  such  creatures  and  leave  the  meat  to  rot  on  the 
ground.  Our  sensitive  Eastern  writer  Parkman, 
keen  mind  and  able  pen  as  were  his,  was  a  very  sav- 
age in  his  lust  for  ^^port;"  indeed  worse  than  any 
savage,  for  the  latter  never  killed  for  sport  alone. 
Gregg  was  neither  a  Parkman  nor  a  modern  'lover 


276  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

of  nature/'  but  something  mucli  better,  a  man  of 
forethought  and  of  good  sense.  His  protest  at  the 
waste  of  life  and  food  in  the  wanton  killing  of  buffalo 
is  one  of  the  most  worthy  things  of  his  worthy  book. 
He  prophesied  what  Parkman  could  not  see  with  all 
his  florid  pictures  of  the  West  that  was  to  be — a 
West  soon  to  be  barren  of  the  great  game  that  did 
so  much  to  win  that  West  from  savagery.  The 
wicked  wastefulness  of  the  killing  of  the  buffalo  was 
one  of  the  American  national  crimes.  Stout 
Josiah  Gregg  saw  it  and  deplored  it,  knowing  as  he 
did  that  much  of  the  success  of  the  Southwe&t  trade 
ever  depended  upon  the  buffalo. 

As  to  the  distances  and  the  direction  of  the  ancient 
trail,  we  may  consider  it  as  starting  at  the  old  West- 
ern town  of  Independence,  on  the  Missouri  Eiver, 
and  extending  properly  no  farther  than  the  town  of 
■Santa  Fe,  in  New  Mexico.  Many  traders  went  on 
down  into  Old  Mexico,  as  far  as  Chihuahua,  which 
city  so  many  of  the  first  adventurers  knew  against 
their  will.  We  have  heard  of  Kit  Carson,  as  a  team- 
ster, as  far  to  the  south  as  Chihuahua,  and  know  that 
in  1828  he  hired  out  there  to  Eobert  McKnight,  one 
of  the  long-time  prisoners  in  that  city,  later  promi- 
nently identified  with  the  history  of  the  trail.  Dif- 
ferent Missouri  towns  outfitted  parties  for  the  trad- 
ing to  the  Southwest,  among  these  prominently  St. 


THE  SANTA  FE  TRAIL  277 

Louis,  and  the  less  important  point  of  Franklin.  We 
may  consider  the  Missouri  Eiver  as  our  frontier  at 
this  epoch,  and  find  most  of  our  traders  among 
those  who  lived  near  the  border  or  were  concerned 
in  business  ventures  in  that  neighborhood.  Assur- 
edly this  talk  of  the  Santa  Fe  trade  was  the  first 
Western  bee  in  the  Kit  Carson  bonnet,  while  he  was 
yet  a  boy  in  Missouri. 

The  course  of  the  old  trail  was  astonishingly  di- 
rect. It  left  little  to  be  gained  in  distance  saving, 
or  in  the  essential  qualities  of  grass  and  water, 
except  along  the  cut-off  over  the  Cimarron  desert, 
which  the  travelers  would  not  forego.  The  first  sec- 
tion of  the  trail,  that  from  Independence  to  Council 
Grove,  the  place  where  the  wagon  trains  usually 
organized  and  went  into  semi-military  formation, 
was  over  a  pleasant,  safe  and  easy  country,  a  distance 
of  one  hundred  and  forty-three  miles,  according  to 
Gregg. 

Thence  the  next  stage  was  to  the  Great  Bend  of  the 
Arkansas,  in  the  line  of  such  modern  towns  as  Galva, 
McPherson  and  Great  Bend,  although  probably  it 
touched  the  Arkansas  at  the  top  of  the  bend,  near  the 
village  of  Ellinwood,  the  first  railway  station  east  of 
Great  Bend.  This  lies  in  a  region  now  tamed  into  a 
wheat  country  and  settled  with  contented  farmers, 
raising  crops  that  have,  by  the  education  of  the  years 


278  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

themselves,  grown  fit  to  endure  that  high,  dry  air,  on 
the  edge  of  the  once  rainless  region.  It  was  two  hun- 
dred and  seventy  miles  out  to  the  Bend  of  the  Ar- 
kansas, and  two  hundred  and  ninety-three  miles  to 
the  noted  Pawnee  Eock,  which  to-day  has  a  town 
named  for  it.  Not  crossing  the  Arkansas  as  yet,  the 
trail  kept  down  the  western  leg  of  the  Great  Bend, 
passed  the  islands  known  as  the  Caches,  kept  up- 
stream for  a  time  to  a  point  twenty  miles  west  of  the 
town  now  known  as  Dodge  City — the  same  ^TDodge" 
so  famous  in  the  cattle  days — ^and  reached  then  the 
ford  of  the  Arkansas,  which  Gregg  says  was  three 
hundred  and  eighty-seven  miles  west  of  Independ- 
ence.* 

This  was  about  half  way  on  the  journey,  and  on 
the  border  line  between  the  United  States  and  the 
Spanish  provinces.  Gregg  makes  the  jump  from 
the  safe  Arkansas  to  the  risky  Cimarron  a  distance 
of  fifty-eight  miles,  two  or  three  days'  travel,  and 
without  water,  as  well  as  without  landmarks.  The 
erstwhile  boom  town  of  Ivanhoe,  of  which  one  re- 
members talk  in  county-seat  wars  as  far  back  as 
1886,  a  little  town  far  down  in  the  dry  country,  is 
near  the  line  of  the  old  trail.  Reaching  the  Cimar- 
ron, the  trail  bent  up  that  doubtful  waterway  to  Cold 


*Other   authorities,    as   for   instance    Chittenden,   make   it 
miles. 


,-  ^-.\  ,^, "  ^m'-i  ^'^p^^^'Tr^^^.'ftfl^?:^^?:^?^^^ 


A  RETREAT  TO  THE  BLOCKHOUSE. 


^^-' 


THE  SANTA  FE  TRAIL  279 

Spring,  five  hundred  and  thirty-five  miles  from  In- 
dependence. There  it  took  another  leap  to  the  south- 
west, over  a  country  then  fairly  well  known  from  the 
Spanish  end  of  the  line,  and  over  a  well  defined  road, 
which  could  not  be  mistaken. 

The  Wagon  Mound  was  a  point  of  note,  situated 
about  six  hundred  and  sixty-two  miles  west  of  the 
starting  point.     One  might  depart  thence  for  Bent's 
Fort  on  the  Arkansas,   located   in   a   country   very 
profitable  for  traders  to  keep  in  view ;  for  above  Benf  s 
famous  hostelry  on  the  mountain  branch  of  the  trail 
lay  the  yet  wilder  pack-horse  commerce  of  the  moun- 
tain trappers'   rendezvous,   far  more  romantic   and 
profitable,  if  less  safe  and  steady  than  the  wagon  com- 
merce of  the  prairies.     From  the  Wagon  Mound  to 
the  first  settlements  of  the  Mexicans,  on  the  Rio  Gal- 
linas,  was  an  easy  stage,  and  to  Santa  Fe  by  this  time 
all  roads  of  the  mountains  thereabout  pointed.      It 
was  seven  hundred  and  eighty  miles  to  Santa  Fe,  ac- 
cording to  Gregg,  the  more  modern  chronicles  making 
it  seven  hundred  and  seventy-five  miles,    the  latter 
figures  being  for  a  part  of  the  time  above,  and  part 
of  the  time  under  the  old  Gregg  estimates,  which 
are  singularly  correct  in  view  of  Gregg's  facilities. 
The  present  Santa  Fe  railway  follows  the  upper  or 
mountain  leg  of  the  old  trail,  which  went  on  up  the 
Arkansas  to  Bent's  Fort,  and  did  not  take  the  leap 


280  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

into  the  desert.  From  the  Wagon  Moimd  on  into 
Santa  Fe  the  railway  route  is  practically  identical 
with  the  old  wagon  way. 

Thus  we  may  see  that  this  great  highway,  hroken 
midway  and  deflected  to  the  southward,  was  less  than 
one  thousand  miles  in  length.  There  was  no  connec- 
tion, except  a  rude  sort  of  pack  route  by  way  of  Taos 
and  the  Colorado  River  country,  between  the  end  of 
the  Santa  Fe  trail  and  the  California  country.  The 
wagons  did  not  go  that  way.  The  later  railway 
drops  down  along  the  Rio  Grande  valley,  just  as  did 
the  Chihuahua  wagon  road;  and  bends  westward  fax 
below  the  old  trails  of  Walker  and  Jedediah  Smith, 
who  started  on  their  transcontinental  voyagings  from 
points  higher  up  in  the  mountains  than  Santa  Fe  or 
Taos. 

The  way  from  Santa  Fe  to  California  seems  to 
have  been  well  known,  but  the  trade  did  not  dare 
to  attempt  a  commerce  so  distant,  and  so  unprofitable 
as  it  must  have  been,  consumed  by  such  necessarily 
heavy  transportation  charges.  We  speak:  of  the  Santa 
Fe  trail  as  one  of  the  great  Western  highways,  but  it 
was  a  halting  and  broken  and  arrested  highway.  It 
was  not  yet  quite  time  for  the  straight  leap  across  the 
rivers.  The  trail  clung  to  the  rivers  as  far  as  it  might, 
and  the  attempts  to  cut  loose  from  the  streams,  and 


THE  SANTA  FE  TRAIL  281 

go  straight  across  from  the  Eed  Eiver  to  Chihuahua, 
proved  to  be  unprofitable  or  impracticable. 

The  total  amount  of  merchandise  carried  in  these 
picturesque  caravans  of  the  prairies  was  perhaps  not 
so  great  as  we  should  imagine,  though  we  must  re- 
member that  a  dollar  was  larger  then  than  it  is 
to-day.  The  extent  of  the  trade  varied  from  year 
to  year,  and  did  not  regularly  increase;  for  though 
we  note  one  caravan  in  1831  taking  out  two  hundred 
thousand  dollars'  worth  of  goods,  we  find  that  in 
1841,  ten  years  later,  the  whole  annual  trade  was  but 
one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  dollars.  The  cli- 
max was  in  1843,  when  goods  to  the  value  of  four 
hundred  and  fifty  thousand  dollars  were  transported. 

The  pay  for  this  came  back  partly  in  specie,  partly 
in  furs,  sometimes  largely  in  horses  and  mules, 
the  trade  thus  bearing  a  double  profit  and  a 
double  risk.  The  Indians  did  not  care  for 
gold  or  silver  so  much  as  they  did  for  horses  and 
mules,  and  diligent  enough  were  their  efforts  to 
stampede  the  live  stock  of  the  traders.  Upon  occa- 
sion the  United  States  Army  was  asked  to  escort  a 
caravan,  but  this  aid  was  not  generally  to  be  expected, 
especially  since  the  worst  part  of  the  route,  that 
infested  by  the  Comanches,  lay  west  of  the  then  ac- 
cepted western  border  of  the  United  States.  The 
average  value  of  the  trade  was  about  one  hundred  and 


2S2  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

fifty  thousand  dollars  yearly,  and  the  total  sum  for 
the  duration  of  this  strange  branch  of  American  com- 
merce was  only  about  three  million  dollars. 

The  goods  carried  were  at  first  largely  prints 
and  drillings,  for  the  Mexicans  got  such  goods 
from  Vera  Cruz  on  the  coast,  and  only  at  great 
expense.  Later  silks,  velvets,  hardware  and  the 
general  line  of  American  goods  began  its  first  west- 
ward way  across  the  American  borders.  Sometimes 
the  stocks  were  retailed,  sometimes  sold  at  wholesale, 
the  latter  more  often  when  the  trader  was  in  a 
hurry.  It  was  a.,  wild,  peculiar  and  fascinating  sort 
of  conomerce,  and  strong  was  the  hold  it  naturally 
took  upon  the  people  of  the  Western  border. 

This  trade  was  carried  on  mostly  by  our  Southern- 
Western  men,  our  new- Americans,  as  we  may  see  by 
the  letter  of  the  grandson  of  James  Baird,  written 
from  Kentucky.  Glenn  came  from  Cincinnati,  Fowler 
from  Covington,  Kentucky,  most  of  the  other  famil- 
iar figures  from  St.  Louis,  Franklin  and  other  Mis- 
souri points.  Morrison,  the  merchant  of  Kaskaskia, 
was  a  man  who  came  down-stream.  The  ISTorthem 
man,  the  man  of  New  England  or  New  York,  had 
not  yet  become  very  much  of  a  Westerner.  The 
West  was  not  yet  safe  enough  for  him.  Nor  indeed 
was  he  to  lead  the  vanguard  of  the  men  who,  far  to 
the  north  of  the  old  Santa  Fe  trail,  were  building 


THE  SANTA  FE  TRAIL  283 

another,  a  greater  and  more  significant  trail,  one 
whose  end  we  do  not  see  even  to-day;  the  men  that 
were  tapping  all  the  secrets  of  the  upp^r  Rockies, 
that  were  to  lead  us  to  the  brink  of  the  Western 
sea  and  even  to  point  beyond  that  sea.  But  for  poli- 
tics, the  Southerners  of  to-day,  the  sons  of  the  old 
daring  ones,  would  admit  the  virtue  of  that  finger 
pointing  over  seas. 

There  is  still  in  New  England  something  of 
the  old  timidity,  the  old  unwillingness  to  see  the 
pointing  finger,  the  same  un-American  tardiness 
to  recognize  the  challenge  of  the  West  Had  it 
not  been  for  the  fascinations  of  this  upper  coun- 
try, for  the  allurements  of  the  great  trail  that 
was  to  run  across  the  continent  to  the  far  North- 
west, there  had  been  more  competition  in  the 
Southwest  trade,  and  mayhap  a  swifter  crowding 
of  events  toward  that  state  of  affairs  that  Park- 
man  saw  when  he  visited  the  Santa  Fe  trail  on  his 
way  home  from  the  Rockies  in  1846 — the  volunteers 
of  Missouri,  kindred  to  the  men  of  Doniphan,  who 
were  straggling  on  out  toward  Mexico  on  an  er- 
rand of  justice  that  had  long  been  overdue.  Shuf- 
fling, angular,  awkward,  uncouth  we  may,  with  Park- 
man,  admit  these  Southern- Western  men  to  have 
been;  each  man  his  own  commander,  reluctant  to 
admit  a  superior  officer,  as  had  been  the  fathers  of 


284  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

these  men  fram  the  time  they  left  the  Atlantic 
coast;  but  they  did  the  work  in  Mexico.  They 
opened  the  trail  forever,  and  saw  to  it  that  the 
"borders  stretched  and  spread  and  gave  iis  room.  It 
is  of  no  use  to  talk  politics  in  questions  like  these,  nor 
is  there  need  to  speak  of  the  moralities.  It  is  for  the 
most  part  a  matter  of  transportation.  It  was  the 
Arkansas  Eiver  trail  that  conquered  Mexico. 

This,  then,  was  the  great  thing  that  the  Santa  Fe 
trail  did  for  us,  although  we  have  forgotten  it.  It 
taught  the  people  of  New  Mexico  that  the  Americans 
were  a  greater  and  stronger  people,  a  more  just  and 
steadfast  people,  than  those  to  the  south,  who  had 
done  naught  in  all  their  lives  but  butcher  and  hesi- 
tate, butcher  again  and  vacillate.  They  were  not 
Bad  to  take  on  the  institutions  of  the  United  States 
in  exchange  for  those  of  Spain.  The  Old  World 
had  not  established  its  ways  on  the  soil  of  the 
"New  World.  The  greatest  of  all  Monroe  doctrines 
still  prevailed,  the  doctrine  of  the  fit,  the  doctrine 
of  evolution,  of  endurance  by  right,  of  hardihood 
got  by  a  sane  dwelling  close  to  the  great  things 
of  nature. 

Far  to  the  north,  the  Oregon  trail  led  to  California 
and  the  Orient.  The  Santa  Fe  trail,  broken  as  it 
was  in  its  transcontinental  flight,  points  now  in  the 
Bame  direction.     The  only  ignoble  part  of  the  Ameri- 


THE  SANTA  FE  TRAIL  285 

can  story  is  the  history  of  American  politics.  All 
politics  aside,  is  it  not  easy  to  see  that  the  old  broken 
trail  is  a  fate-finger  pointing  to  Mexico  and  the 
trans-Isthmian  canal;  to  an  America  wholly  Ameri- 
can; and  to  an  Orient  that  again  and  by  another 
trail  is  destined  to  be  our  West?  We  may  spill  our 
oratory,  may  deplore  utterly  and  sincerely,  yet  we 
shall  not  prevail  to  build  any  wall  high  enough  to 
stop  this  thing.  The  Old  World  might  combine  for 
the  time  against  the  New,  might  for  a  term  of  years 
conspire  to  put  our  venturers  in  prison;  but  at  last 
it  all  were  futile.  Much  of  the  temperate  zone  of 
the  world  belongs  to  a  people  whose  history  is  but 
the  history  of  a  West;  it  will  always  so  belong  while 
the  character  of  that  people  shall  retain  the  dignity 
and  force  of  those  men  who  ^^could  not  otherwise." 

This  people  is  concerned  to-day,  as  it  has  always 
been,  not  with  sentiment  but  with  self  interest.  Its 
great  movements  have  been  based  not  on  theories  but 
on  common  sense.  Its  great  policies  have  been  founded 
on  geography  and  not  on  polemics.  Its  great  adversi- 
ties have  been  those  of  transportation ;  its  great  suc- 
cesses have  been  those  built  on  transportation  prob- 
lems ably  mastered.  To-day  this  American  people 
waxes  somewhat  flamboyantly  boastful,  according 
lightly  and  cheerfully  to  itself  the  title  of  the  great- 
est nation  of  the  world.    It  may  indeed  be  such,  or 


286  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

potentially  such ;  but  it  will  retain  better  claim  upon 
that  greatness  if  in  all  humility  it  shall  remember 
iihe  slow  days  wherein  that  greatness  was  founded, 
wherefrom  that  greatness  grew.  Therein  lies  the  im- 
port of  the  early  Western  trails. 


CHAPTER  III 


THE   OREGON   TRAIL 


In  the  distribution  of  the  population  of  Western 
America,  the  mouths  of  many  great  Western  rivers> 
the  Mississippi,  the  Missouri,  the  Columbia,  the  Col- 
orado, the  Eed,  the  Sacramento,  the  Arkansas,  per- 
haps even  the  Ohio,  were  known  before  their  sources 
were  fully  explored.  The  journey  over  the  Appa- 
lachians, and  the  down-stream  movements  that  fol- 
lowed the  Mississippi  and  its  greater  tributaries, 
were  the  first  concerns  of  our  new- American  emi- 
grants. The  lower  reaches  of  the  great  Western  riv- 
ers having  been  utilized,  the  first  two  decades  of  the 
century  last  past  were  spent  in  the  search  for  the 
head  waters  of  these  same  streams. 

Lewis  and  Clark  followed  up  the  tortuous  Missouri 
until  they  reached  at  least  a  practical  conclusion  as  to 
its  sources.  Lieutenant  Pike  mistook  the  upper  Rio 
Grande  for  the  head  of  the  Red  River,  and  it  cost 
him  a  long  walk  to  Chihuahua.  Yet  he  was  as  accu- 
rate as  the  famous  Baron  von  Humboldt,  who  thought 
the  Pecos  River  was  a  tributary  of  the  Red.  Major 
Long,  in  1820,  dropped  down  from  the  South  Fork 

of  the  Platte  to  the  head  waters  of  the  Cimarron, 

287 


288  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

which  he  traced  to  the  Canadian,  also  missing  the 
Eed  Eiver  which  he  sought,  and  taking  the  Canadian 
river  to  he  the  Eed. 

Scores  of  similar  errors  were  made  in  those  days 
before  the  maps,  but  still  the  explorations  went 
on.  The  head  waters  of  the  Columbia,  of  the  Green, 
of  the  Sacramento  or  "Buena  Ventura,"  offered  chal- 
lenge to  many  bold  men,  the  story  of  whose  exploits 
forms  one  of  the  most  glowing  chapters  of  American 
hero  history.  These  divers  pursuits,  these  evidences 
of  an  up-stream  travel  and  traffic,  more  properly 
group  themselves  under  our  second  general  head  of 
up-stream  transportation.  Next  there  was  to  come 
the  day  of  transportation  across  the  waters,  from 
stream  to  stream. 

Among  those  men  who  early  in  the  past  century 
pressed  out  most  boldly  in  the  quest  for  the  heads 
of  the  upper  Western  waters,  we  continue  to  find  our 
men  of  the  South  very-  prominent,  the  sons  of  the 
men  that  moved  west  from  Virginia,  Kentucky  and 
Tennessee  into  Missouri  and  other  parts  of  the  trans- 
Mississippi.  Many  of  these  made  the  old  town  of  St. 
Louis  their  general  starting  point,  and  St.  Louis  was, 
in  those  days,  much  more  a  Southern  or  Western 
town  than  it  is  to-day.  As  in  the  time  of  the  Santa 
Ee  trail,  the  Western  man  was  still  what  we  should 
call  to-day  a  Southerner. 


THE  OREGON  TRAIL  «89 

The  greater  number  of  the  leaders  of  the  fur  trade 
were  properly  to  be  called  Western-born  citizens.     A 
few  exceptions  to  this  rule  are  worthy  of  note.     John 
Jacob  Astor  was  the  first  of  the  Eastern  merchants 
to  send  out  a  commercial  expedition  into  the  far  West; 
but  really  the  first  notable  Eastern  explorer  personally 
to  engage  in  exploring  the  head  waters  of  distant 
Western  rivers  was  Nathaniel  J.  Wyeth,  of  Massachu- 
setts, who,  in  1832,  led  the  first  continuous  expedition 
from  New  England  to  the  mouth  of  the  Columbia, 
a  man  whose  pluck  and  energy  deserved  a  better  fate 
than  he  encountered.     It  was  this  same  Wyeth  who, 
in  1834,  founded  one  of  the  first  establishments  west 
of  the  Rockies,  that  Fort  Hall,  often  mentioned  in 
the  story  of  the  fur  trade,  which  was  afterward  sold 
to  the  Hudson  Bay  Company.     Fort  Hall  was  a 
trading  post  of  much  note  in  earlier  times,  and  it  is 
of  interest  to  us  at  this  juncture,  in  view  of  the  fact 
that  it  was  located  on  that  great  roadway  later  to  be 
trod  by  thousands  of  feet  that  had  begun  their  Jour- 
ney farther  to  the  eastward  than  the  valley  of  the 
Mississippi — the  roadway  to  be  known  as  the  Oregon 

trail. 

There  was  early  need  for  a  trail  to  Oregon.  The 
first  of  the  hardy  trappers  of  the  Northwest  told  us 
about  Oregon;  and  had  we  heeded  them,  we  might 
to-day  have  an  Oregon  of  continuous  American  terri- 


290  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

tory  nmning  north  to  Alaska.  Our  trappers  offered 
us  this  empire.  Our  "leaders"  lost  it  for  us.  As  it 
was,  we  nearly  lost  what  Oregon  we  have  to  Great 
Britain  and  her  own  hardy  trappers.  Wyeth  and 
his  friends  brought  back  word  to  the  East,  which  at 
last  the  ever  hesitating,  ever  doubting  Eastern  men 
believed.  At  last  we  summoned  together  our  senses, 
our  halting  diplomacy,  with  the  result  that  we  kept 
our  marches  intact  to  the  Western  sea.  This  we 
were  able  to  do  simply  because  of  the  individual 
search  that  had  been  going  on  for  the  head  waters 
of  the  Western  streams,  because  the  Western  men 
had  already  made  for  us  that  Oregon  trail,  which 
gave  us  touch  with  the  far-off  American  provinces 
beyond  the  Rockies. 

To-day,  to  the  average  resident  of  the  Middle  West, 
Oregon  seems  farther  away  than  California;  but  up 
to  the  middle  of  the  last  century  it  was  much  nearer 
and  much  better  known ;  and  it  was  so  solely  because, 
under  the  existing  conditions  of  travel,  it  was  more 
accessible.  The  Santa  Fe  trail  did  not  go  to  Cali- 
fornia. The  Oregon  trail  did  go  to  Oregon,  and  over 
a  plain  and  easy  route. 

The  Oregon  trail  left  the  Missouri  Eiver,  as  did 
the  Santa  Fe  trail,  at  that  early  citadel  of  the  trade 
of  the  West,  the  town  of  Independence.  It  followed 
up  the   ancient  valley   of  the   Platte,   immemorial 


THE  OREGON  TRAIL  291 

highway  of  the  tribes,  and  led  to  the  head  waters 
of  many  streams  now  historic,  even  then  long 
familiar  to  many  of  our  early  trappers  and  traders. 

We  have  heard  of  Andrew  Henry,  whose  name  was 
given  to  a  beautiful  lake  of  the  Rockies,  as  well  as 
to  a  once  famous  trading  post  across  the  range,  the 
lieutenant  whose  man,  Etienne  Provost,  probably  dis- 
covered the  South  Pass.  We  know  of  the  trader 
Jackson,  one  of  General  Ashley^s  bold  mountain 
family,  whose  name  was  left  to  the  beautiful  valley 
below  the  Yellowstone  Park,  called  even  to-day  Jack- 
son's Hole.  We  have  heard  of  the  wanderings  of 
Campbell,  Fitzpatrick,  Sublette,  of  Jim  Bridger, 
and  of  General  Ashley  himself,  prince  of  early  moun- 
tain traders,  father  of  a  bold  crew  of  young  succes- 
sors. We  shall  presently  speak  of  Bonneville  and 
his  northern  wagons,  and  of  Bonneville's  man 
Walker,  bigger  than  himself.  We  must  also  trace 
a  part  of  the  march  of  the  first  land  party  to  cross 
this  continent,  the  Astorians,  whose  broken  journey- 
ings  down  the  Snake  and  Columbia  made  part  of 
the  earliest  trail-history  of  the  West. 

All  these  different  leaders  and  individuals  had 
much  to  do  with  the  Oregon  trail ;  the  trail  that  was 
the  road  of  the  adventurers,  and  also  the  first  real  road 
to  the  Pacific  for  that  traveler  properly  to  be  called 
the  home-seeking  man.  The  Missouri  River  would  do 


292  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

for  Manuel  Lisa  and  General  Ashley  and  Majoi 
Henry,  and  the  Snblettes,  and  the  Chouteaus,  and 
all  those  others  that  held  the  scores  of  trading  posts 
which  dotted  the  upper  waters  of  the  Missouri  and 
the  Yellowstone.  The  Missouri  Eiver  and  its  tribu- 
taries gave  thein  their  natural  roadways ;  but  all  these 
scattered  posts,  all  this  devious  ancient  roadway  of 
the  waters,  lay  far  to  the  northward,  on  the  upper 
curve  of  a  great  arc,  the  winding  way  traced  out  by 
Lewis  and  Clark,  the  way  of  the  up-stream  wan- 
derers. The  streams  ever  appealed  to  explorers.  Any 
man  going  into  unknown  country  instinctively  clings 
to  the  waterways,  near  which  he  always  feels  safer. 
Yet  it  was  the  way  between  and  across,  the  streams 
that  spoke  most  loudly  to  those  settlers  that  came 
to  stay,  to  till  the  soil,  who  brought  with  them 
household  goods,  who  brought  ax  and  plow  as  well  as 
trap  and  rifle.  The  ancient  highway  for  footmen 
and  horsemen,  which  ran  up  the  valley  of  the  Platte 
Eiver,  extended  out  along  the  chord  of  this  great 
Missouri  Eiver  arc,  along  the  string  of  this  vasit 
bended  bow. 

The  string  of  this  great  bow  ran  four  degrees  of 
latitude  to  the  south  of  the  upper  curve  of  the  Mis- 
souri. Evidently  the  line  of  the  bow-atring  was  the 
better  way  to  the  Pacific;  the  more  especially  since 
itself  followed  for  so  great  a  distance  another  pre- 


THE  OREGOIS"  TRAIL  293 

ordained  pathway  of  the  waters — that  of  the  river 
Platte,  ancient  road  of  the  Indian  tribes.  It  was  with- 
in natural  reason,  therefore,  that  the  travelers  should 
break  away,  should  leave  the  upper  waterway  and 
start  directly  overland.  This  came  to  pass  because 
there  were  now  horses  to  be  obtained  in  the  West. 

■m 

We  are  now  come  to  the  time  of  horse  transportation ; 
which  was  the  beginning  of  the  day  of  travel  across 
the  streams. 

Along  this  great  trail  crossing  the  waters  men 
bent  their  steps  toward  Oregon  and  California, 
men  from  the  banks  of  the  Missouri,  from  Illinois, 
and  now  even  from  far-off  ISTew  England^ — ^where  at 
last  they  had  learned  the  '^^easy  way  West"  and  had 
begun  to  travel,  as  their  friends  to  the  southward  had 
been  doing  for  so  many  years.  Tlius,  then,  began 
the  great  Oregon  trail,  this  road  that  might,  with 
justice,  have  been  called  an  open  highway  when  Fre- 
mont "explored"  the  Rockies,  albeit  a  highway  al- 
most unsettled,  as  it  is  to-day  over  much  of  its  length, 
though  peopled  thick  with  mighty  memories.  The 
Mormons,  the  Missourians,  the  men  bound  for  the 
placers  of  Montana,  the  valleys  of  California,  or  the 
warm  slopes  of  the  Oregon  ranges — all  these  helped 
wear  deep  into  the  earth  the  old  roadway,  once 
clear-cut  and  unmistakable  for  more  than  two  thou- 


294  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

sand  miles  west  of  Uiat  Missouri  Eiver  which  was  the 
first  route  out  into  the  ulterior  West. 

It  may  profit  us  to  fix  in  sequence  a  few  simple 
facts  in  the  study  of  the  development  of  this  great 
trail.  At  the  start,  of  course,  we  come  to  our  French- 
man De  la  Verendrye,  who  may  perhaps  have  been 
the  first  to  tread  a  portion  of  the  later  Oregon  trail ; 
since  we  know  he  forsook  the  Missouri  and  started 
overland,  possibly  up  the  Platte,  crossing  some  of  the 
country  which  the  Astorians  later  saw.  We  hear 
also  of  the  trapper  Ezekiel  Williams*  in  1807,  and 
some  of  the  advance  guards  of  the  Missouri  Fur 
Company,  who  were  cutting  loose  from  the  Missouri 
Eiver,  and  who  were  naturally  looking  for  the  easiest 
land  routes.  Then  came  Wilson  Price  Hunt,  with 
his  overland  Astorians,  seeking  a  way  from  the  mid- 
Missouri  Eiver  to  the  Columbia  Eiver. 

These  established  the  course  of  the  Oregon  trail 
west  of  the  Eockies,  but  did  not  trace  it  so  distinctly 
on  the  east  of  that  range.  Later  Eobert  Stuart  and 
the  returning  Astorians  were  to  mark  out,  east  of  the 
Divide,  the  route  of  the  Oregon  trail  for  much  of 
its  length.  Then  came  Ashley,  who  went  up  the 
Platte  and  across  the  South  Pass;  and  after  Ashley 
came  scores  of  other  flap-hatted  trappers  and  traders. 


♦Said  to  have  been  the  first  white  man  to  cross  the  borders  of 
"What  is  now  Wyoming. 


THE  OEEGON  TRAIL  295 

all  of  whom  rode,  we  ma}^  be  sure,  along  the  easiest 
ways;  which  meant  the  Sweetwater  and  the  South 
Pass  after  the  Platte  was  left  behind.  These  fol- 
lowed the  route  of  the  Oregon  trail  for  the  compell- 
ing reason  of  topography.  jSTow  came  Bonneville  and 
his  wagons  to  deepen  the  trail,  in  1832;  and  two 
years  later  than  that,  in  1834,  Eobert  Campbell  and 
William  Sublette  built  old  Fort  Laramie,  on  Lara- 
mie Creek,  a  branch  of  the  Platte.*  This  establish- 
ment went  far  toward  developing  the  Oregon  trail 
into  a  regular  route.  It  became  a  well  known  trad- 
ing center,  so  that  all  the  trappers  and  many  Indians 
rounded  up  there;  and  in  the  days  of  the  emigrants, 
60on  to  come,  thousands  of  weary  travelers  aided  in 
marking  deeply  the  now  unmistakable  and  open  road- 
way that  lay  aeross  the  Eockies. 

So  practicable  was  this  post  of  Fort  Laramie,  and 
so  practicable  also  the  route  on  which  it  was  located, 
that  in  1849  the  United  States  government  bought  the 
old  post,  and  used  it  as  a  military  establishment,  so 
adding  to  its  long  and  exciting  history.  Eight  years 
after  the  building  of  Fort  Laramie,  Fort  Bridger  was 
built  by  Jim  Bridger,  on  a  branch  of  the  Green  Eiver, 
over  the  Divide,  farther  out  to  the  west,  along  what 
had  now  come  to  be  a  universally  accepted  highway. 


•Again  our  useful  date  of  1834. 


296  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

Jim  Bridger,  possibly  the  first  discoverer  of  Great 
Salt  Lake,  was,  by  the  year  1842,  ready  to  admit 
that  the  old  days  were  over  and  done  with.  No  more 
trapping  for  Jim  Bridger.  The  West  was  gone. 
He  must  thenceforth  feed  Mormons,  or  guide  gov- 
ernment officers  in  their  "explorations."  Bridger 
gave  up  the  West  as  a  squeezed  orange  at  just  the 
time  Fremont  was  starting  out  to  make  his  name  as 
the  "Pathfinder"  of  the  Kockies.  Fremont,  and  all 
the  other  explorers  of  so  late  a  period,  went  west  as 
far  as  the  head  waters  of  the  Green  River  over  the 
Oregon  trail, — a  road  a  man  could  have  followed  in 
the  dark. 

The  Mormons  took  over  Fort  Bridger  in  1853,  not 
liking  so  stable  a  Gentile  institution  thus  near  to 
their  realm ;  but  the  Mormons  forgot  that  they  could 
not  wipe  out  the  trail  that  led  to  Bridger's  old  log 
fortress.  The  trail  brought  on  an  ever-growing 
stream  of  travel.  In  time  Fort  Bridger,  too,  became 
an  army  post,  and  remained  such  from  1857  till 
1890.  Since  the  latter  date  it  has  been  abandoned. 
We  go  to  Europe  to  seek  for  interesting  ruins,  for 
getting  Laramie  and  Bridger  and  Benton,  all  spots 
with  significant  and  thrilling  histories. 

As  to  the  great  trail  of  the  Northwest,  considered 
as  a  transcontinental  trail  properly  so  called,  its 


THE  OKEGON'  TRAIL  39? 

second  stage  might  be  said  to  begin  in  1834,*  when 
it  was  first  used  as  a  route  straight  through  to  Oregon. 
After  that  date  the  parties  of  emigrants  steadily 
grew  in  numbers,  among  them  not  only  men  from 
Missouri,  but  farther  to  the  east. 

In  1836  there  occurred  a  great  and  wonderful 
thing.     Two  women  moved  out  into  the  West  along 
the  Oregon  trail.    We  keep  record  of  the  times  when 
wagons   first   went  up   the   Platte,    and    we    shall 
do   well   also   to   note   this    date    of    1836,     when 
women  of  the  white  race  first  went  over  the  na- 
tional    road     of     the     West.       Tliese     two     were 
the    wives    of    Whitman    and    Spalding,    mission- 
aries bound   for   Oregon.    Father   de   Smet,   great 
man  and  good,  a  missionary  also,  followed  in  1840; 
then  more  missionaries  from  New  England— always 
prolific  of  missionaries;  and  two  years  later  Fremont, 
as  far  at  least  as  the  South  Pass.     Then  came  the 
Mormons  in  1847,  bound  for  their  kingdom  of  Des- 
eret,  and  the  Oregon  Battalion  in  the  same  year; 
these  followed  soon  thereafter    by    a    continuous 
stream  made  up  of  thousands  of  trappers  and  ex- 

*Pray  you  yet  again,  remember  this  great  American  date  of 
1834  and  you  shall  be  quit  of  all  others,  all  those  telling  of  wars 
and*  politics.  That  was  the  year  when  the  beaver  trapping  ceased 
to  be  profitable,  when  the  trappers  came  in,  when  the  wild  West 
began  to  become  the  civilized  West.  This  date,  remembered 
philosophically,  will  prove  of  the  utmost  service  in  retaining  a 
connected  idea  of  the  settlement  of  the  West.  It  has  bearings 
hoth  upon  the  past  and  upon  the  future.  It  la  a  milestone 
marking  the  parting  of  the  ways. 


298  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

plorera  and  visitors  and  gold  seekers,  who  began  to 
crowd  West  after  '49  and  the  discovery  of  gold. 
Those  were  busy  times  in  the  West,  we  may  be 
sure.  The  Oregon  trail  grew  deep  and  wide.  No 
traveler  on  the  north  and  south  line  could  cross  it 
without  being  aware  of  that  fact.  It  was  the  plain, 
main-traveled  road. 

The  first  agricultural  invasion  along  the  old  trail 
might  be  said  to  be  that  of  the  Mormons,  who 
sent  delegations  from  their  settlements  to  occupy 
the  Green  Eiver  valley,  and  who  used  the  trail  for  a 
short  way.  Greneral  Albert  Sidney  Johnston  used  it 
for  many  more  miles,  when  he  went  out  to  take  care 
of  some  of  these  Mormons,  now  grown  obstreperous. 

Even  so  late  as  this  we  are  many  years  in  advance 
of  the  railways ;  which  indeed  do  not  even  to-day  oc- 
cupy the  old  Oregon  trail  throughout  its  entire  length, 
though  using  much  of  it  on  both  sides  of  that  easy 
South  Pass  country,  once  so  useful  to  the  trappers 
and  wagon  travelers,  but  not  so  essential  to  railway 
engineers  looking  for  more  direct  lines  across  the 
wastes.  Perhaps  we  shall  some  day  see  a  line  of  rails 
follow  throughout  the  two  thousand  miles  of  this  an- 
cient trail.  Even  so,  our  American  tourists  would 
still  go  to  Europe  in  search  of  ruins  and  history  and 
memories !  We  know  and  care  all  too  little  now  for 
this  old  trail,  whose  earliest  travelers  were  called  by 


THE  OREGON  TKAIL  299 

the  California  Indians  the  "Whoa-haws"— that  be- 
ing the  word  most  used  by  the  aforesaid  emigrants, 
who  had  pushed  their  ox-teams  across  half  a  conti- 
nent. Significant  term,  this  '^Whoa-haw''  title, 
though  we  have  now  forgotten  it. 

The  emigrants  of  to-day  do  not  go  by  the 
^'Whoa-haw"  route.  On  February  twelfth  of  the  year 
1902,  between  fifteen  hundred  and  eighteen  hun- 
dred land  hunters  left  the  city  of  Chicago  for 
the  country  of  the  Northwest.  Two-thirds  of  these 
came  from  the  crowded  East,  the  remaining  third, 
for  the  most  part,  from  the  crowded  West  of 
Illinois,  Indiana  and  Wisconsin,  now  grown  very 
old. 

A  common  carrier,  responsible  as  such  for  the 
life  and  goods  of  these  emigrants,  agreed  to 
take  them  from  Chicago  to  the  city  of  Portland,  on 
the  extreme  western  end  of  that  Oregon  trail,  for  the 
price  per  head  of  thirty  dollars.  The  old  '"Whoa- 
haw"  route  once  demanded  a  year  of  time  and  a 
heart  of  steel,  as  part  of  the  essential  capital  of  the 
traveler,  and  demanded  also  that  he  take  his  own 
chances  and  foot  his  own  losses,  which,  in  the  nature 
of  things,  might  be  considerable. 

It  was  expected  by  one  railroad  in  the  year  1902 
that  it  would,  within  the  term  of  twelve  months,  carry 
out  fifty  thousand  persons  to  settle  in  the  Northwest 


300  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

coast  country.  There  you  have  the  old  way  and  the 
new.  There  you  have  a  part  of  the  history  of  a 
country  two  thousand  miles  west  of  the  Mississippi 
valley,  which  even  Thomas  Jefferson  accepted  as  the 
very  farthest  edge  of  the  region  that  could  ever  be 
called  America!  This  is  the  story  of  a  land  that 
even  Thomas  Benton,  a  big  man,  and  always  a  friend 
of  the  West,  really  in  his  own  conscience  thought 
could  never,  by  any  possibility,  extend  its  national 
and  civilized  limits  west  of  the  Eockies !  This  is  the 
record  of  a  region  which,  in  the  beginnings  of  the 
Oregon  trail,  our  ablest  men  of  letters  and  of  state- 
craft thought  coidd  never  be  aught  but  the  home  of 
wandering  tribes  of  savages!  Truly  the  great  men 
of  to-day  might  profitably  learn  humility  from  a 
study  of  the  things  which  the  American  people  have 
done  in  spite  of  leaders.  Ah !  Daniel  Webster,  and 
many  other  Daniels  of  the  little  East,  coidd  you 
come  to  life  to-day,  what  would  be  your  oratory  ? 

Francis  Parkman,  sometimes  querulous,  often  su- 
percilious, but  ever  beautiful  and  splendidly  accurate 
historian  of  the  beginnings  of  the  American  West, 
visited  the  Oregon  trail  in  1846,  twelve  years  after 
Kit  Carson  had  practically  ceased  to  trap  beaver, 
and  four  years  after  the  first  Fremont  expedition,* 

*0ne  of  Parkman's  men,  the  hunter  Raymond,  perished  In  the 
ill-fated  Fr§mont  third  expedition,  among  the  sno-ws  of  the  lofty 
mountains  far  below  the  South  Pass. 


THE  OREGON  TRAIL  301 

He  says ;  '^Emigrants  from  every  part  of  the  country 
were  preparing  for  the  journey  to  Oregon  and  Cal- 
ifornia;'^ and  adds,  '^An  unusual  number  of  traders 
were  outfitting  for  the  Northwest;"  as  well  as  many 
Mormons.  This  was  before  the  discovery  of  goid  in 
California.  Independence,  the  outfitting  point,  was 
at  the  threshold  of  the  later  West,  the  beginning  of 
the  way  to  the  Pacific* 

Parkman  states  in  the  preface  to  a  later  edition  of 
his  work  (1872)  :  '^e  knew  that  a  few  fanatical 
outcasts  were  groping  their  way  across  the  plains  to 
seek  an  asylimi  from  Gentile  persecution,  but  we  did 
not  dream  that  the  polygamous  hordes  of  Mormon 
would  rear  a  swarming  Jerusalem  in  the  bosom  of 
solitude  itself.  We  knew  that,  more  and  more,  year 
after  year,  the  trains  of  the  emigrant  wagons  would 
creep  in  slow  procession  toward  barbarous  Oregon  or 
wild  California,  but  we  did  not  dream  how  Commerce 
and  Gold  would  breed  nations  along  the  Pacific,  the 
disenchanting  screech  of  locomotives  break  the  spell 
of  weird  mysterious  mountains.  .  .  .  The  wild 
cavalcade  that  defiled  with  me  down  the  gorges  of 
the  Black  Hills,  with  its  paint  and  war  plumes,  flut- 
tering trophies  and  savage  embroidery,  bows,  ar- 
rows, lances  and  shields,  -vnll  never  be  seen  again." 

In  no  way  could  Parkman  have  been  more  just  or 

•V,  also  Chapter  II,  Vol.  Ill;  "The  Santa  Ffi  Trail." 


302  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

thoughtful  than  in  one  of  his  chance  statements. 
''All  things  are  relative;''  said  he.  "The  West  is 
either  very  old  or  ver}"  new,  according  as  we  look  at 
it."  From  the  one  point  of  view  he  might  feel  a 
superiority  of  his  own,  for  as  he  traveled  over  the 
country  a  few  days'  march  west  of  Leavenworth  he 
saw  many  antlers  of  elk  and  skulls  of  buffalo,  '^re- 
minders of  the  animals  once  swarming  over  this  now 
deserted  region."  This  intervening  country  be- 
tween the  Missouri  Eiver  and  the  plains  proper  he 
considers  to  serve  the  popular  notion  of  the  "prairie." 
"For  this  it  is,"  he  writes,  "from  which  tourists, 
painters,  poets  and  novelists,  who  have  seldom  pen- 
etrated farther,  derived  their  conception  of  the  whole 
region."  There  was  fell  stroke  of  unwitting  justice ! 
Even  to-day  there  are  artists  and  novelists  that  deal 
with  the  West,  but  have  "seldom  penetrated  farther" 
than  the  edge  of  the  real  West. 

Parkman  himself  saw  the  old  trail  fairly  well  dot- 
ted with  the  outfits  of  the  west-bound  emigrants. 
He  describes  the  difficulties  then  existing  between 
the  Mormons  and  their  enemies,  and  the  suspicions 
of  the  one  party  against  the  other.  He  saw  one 
party  of  fifty  wagons,  with  'hundreds  of  cattle,"  on 
his  way  up  the  Platte.  Far  out  to  the  West,  on  that 
Horse  Creek  so  frequently  mentioned  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  mountain  trappers'  rendezvous,  he  wit- 


THE  OREGOiS"  TRAIL  303 

nessed  a  party  of  Indian  women  and  children  bath- 
ing in  the  stream,  while  meantime  '^a  long  train  of 
emigrants  with  their  heavy  wagons  was  crossing  the 
creek,  and  dragging  on  in  slow  procession  by  the  en- 
campment of  the  people  whom  they  and  their  de- 
scendants, in  the  space  of  a  century,  are  to  sweep 
from  the  face  of  the  earth."  This  was  toward  the 
headwaters  of  the  Platte,  of  course,  not  far  from 
that  Fort  Laramie  where  he  met  the  grandsons  of 
Daniel  Boone,  still  going  West,  even  unto  the  third 
and  fourth  generation.  "Great  changes  are  at 
hand,"  says  he,  "great  changes  are  at  hand  in  all 
that  region.  With  the  stream  of  emigration  to  Ore- 
gon and  California  the  buffalo  will  dwindle  away. 
.  .  .  In  a  few  years  the  traveler  will  pass  in 
tolerable  security."  This  was  the  utmost  prophecy 
of  one  of  the  most  intelligent  and  philosophical 
travelers  that  ever  went  from  the  East  into  the  West ! 
Yet  one  of  the  most  vivid  conceptions  possible  of 
the  history  of  that  day,  as  bearing  on  the  strange 
impulse  that  seemed  to  drive  these  wanderers  west 
and  ever  westward,  may  be  gained  from  a  passage 
of  Parkman's  "Oregon  Trail."  '^It  is  worth  notic- 
ing," says  he,  "that  on  the  Platte  one  may  some- 
times see  the  shattered  wrecks  of  ancient  claw-footed 
tables,  well  waxed  and  rubbed,  or  massive  bureaus 
of  carved  oak.    These,  some  of  them  no  doubt  the 


304  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

relics  of  ancestral  prosperity  in  colonial  times,  must 
have  encountered  strange  vicissitudes.  Brought, 
perhaps,  originally  from  England ;  then,  with  the  de- 
clining fortunes  of  their  owners,  borne  a^jross  the 
•Alleghanies  to  the  wilderness  of  Ohio  or  Kentucky; 
then  to  Illinois  or  Missouri;  and  now  at  last  fondly 
stowed  away  for  the  interminable  journey  to  Ore- 
gon. But  the  stern  privations  of  the  way  are  little 
anticipated.  The  cherished  relic  is  thrown  out  to 
scorch  and  crack  on  the  hot  prairie."  What  a 
world  of  suggestion  there  lies  in  this  chance  picture 
of  the  desert — what  a  world  of  American  history  it 
covers!  Perhaps  one  day  the  American  people  will 
come  to  take  interest  in  a  past  so  curious  and  so 
striking  as  its  own. 

There  was  a  time  when  every  Western  man,  still 
restless,  still  unsettled,  still  under  the  mysterious 
west-bound  impulse,  thought  in  terms  of  Oregon  and 
California.  No  wall  could  have  stopped  these  men. 
No  political  doctrine  could  have  restrained  them. 
As  well  try  to  regulate  the  sweep  of  the  tides  of 
ocean,  equally  mysterious,  equally  irresistible.  This 
great  road  of  the  prairies  and  the  mountains,  more 
than  two  thousand  miles  long,  and  level,  smooth  and 
easy,  even  though  it  crossed  a  continental  divide — ^this 
unengineered  triumph  of  engineering — ^lay  directly 
at  hand  as  the  natural  pathway  of  the  American  peo- 


THE  OREGOlSr  TRAIL  306 

pie.  It  was  the  longest  highway  of  the  world,  unless 
that  may  be  the  trail  of  the  convicts  of  Siberia,  to 
reach  whose  terminus  in  the  fullness  of  time  this 
great  trail  of  the  American  freemen  seems  to  have 
been  devised.  It  was  the  route  of  a  national  move- 
ment— ^the  emigration  of  a  people  ^^seeking  to  a/vail 
itself  of  opportunities  that  have  come  but  rarely 
in  the  history  of  the  world,  and  will  never  come 
again." 

As  has  been  stated,  the  overland  trail  to  Oregc«i 
began,  aa  did  the  Santa  Fe  trail,  at  the  town  of  In- 
dependence, on  the  Missouri  Eiver.  The  two  trails 
were  the  same  for  forty-one  miles,  when,  as  the  able 
historian  of  the  fur  trade  remarks,  a  simple  sign 
board  was  seen  which  carried  the  words,  'Tload  to 
Oregon."*  The  methods  of  these  old  men  were  very 
direct  and  simple.  There  was  smaU  flourish  about 
this  little  board,  whose  mission  was  to  point  the  way 
across  these  miles  of  wild  and  uninhabited  country ! 
Tbere  were  branch  trails  that  came  into  the  road 
from  Leavenworth  and  St.  Joseph,  striking  it  above 
the  point  of  departure  from  the  Santa  Fe  trail ;  but 
the  Oregon  trail  proper  swung  off  from  this  fork, 
running  steadily  to  the  northwest,  part  of  the  time 
along  the  Little  Blue  Eiver,  until  at  length  it  struck 


♦Chittenden. 


306  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

the  valley  of  tlie  Platte,  which  was  so  essential  to 
its  welfare.  The  distance  from  Independence  to  the 
Platte  was  three  hundred  and  sixteen  miles^  the  trail 
reaching  the  Platte  "ahout  twenty  miles  below  the 
head  of  Grand  Island."  The  course  thence  lay  up  the 
Platte  valley  to  the  two  fords,  about  at  the  Forks  of 
the  Platte,  four  hundred  and  thirty-three  or  four 
hundred  and  ninety-three  miles. 

Here  at  the  Forks  was  a  point  of  departure  in  the 
old  days.  If  one  chose  to  follow  the  South  Fork  of 
the  Platte,  he  might  bring  up  in  the  Bayou  Salade, 
within  reach  of  the  Spanish  settlements  and  the  head 
of  the  Arkansas,  as  we  may  see  in  reading  of  La 
Lande  and  of  PurceU  and  of  Ashley,  and  of  the  later 
traders;  or  he  might  take  the  other  arm  and  come 
out  on  the  edge  of  the  continental  Divide  much 
higher  up  to  the  north. 

The  Oregon  trail  followed  the  South  Fork  for  a 
time,  then  swung  over  to  the  North  Fork,  at 
Ash  Creek,  five  hundred  and  thirteen  miles  from 
Independence.  It  was  six  hundred  and  sixty- 
seven  miles  to  Fort  Laramie,  which  was  the 
last  post  on  the  eastern  side  of  the  Kockies. 
Thence  the  trail  struggled  on  up  the  Platte,  keeping 
close  as  it  might  to  the  stream,  till  it  reached  the 
Ford  of  the  Platte,  well  up  toward  the  mountains, 
and  seven  hundred  and  ninet}^-four  miles  out  from 


THE  OREGON  TRAIL  307 

Independence — ^nearly  the  same  distance  from  that 
point  as  was  the  city  of  Santa  Fe  on  the  lower  trail. 
Yet  a  little  farther  on  and  the  trail  forsook  the 
Platte  and  swung  across,  eight  hundred  and  seven 
miles  out  from  the  Missouri,  to  the  valley  of  the 
Sweetwater,  now  an  essential  feature  of  the  highway. 
The  famous  Independence  Rock,  eight  hundred  and 
thirty-eight  miles  from  Independence,  was  one  of 
the  most  noteworthy  features  along  the  trail.  It 
marked  the  entrance  into  the  Sweetwater  dis- 
trict, and  was  a  sort  of  register  of  the  wilderness, 
holding  the  rudely  carved  names  of  many  of  the 
greatest  Western  venturers,  as  well  as  many  of  no 
consequence.  The  Sweetwater  takes  us  below  the 
foot  of  the  Bighorns,  through  the  Devil's  Gate,  and 
leads  us  gently  up  to  that  remarkable  crossing  of  the 
Rockies  known  as  the  South  Pass,  a  spot  of  great 
associations.  This  is  nine  hundred  and  forty-seven 
miles  from  the  Missouri  River.  Here  all  the  west- 
bound voyagers  felt  that  their  journey  to  the  Pacific 
was  well-nigh  completed,  though  as  a  matter  of  fact 
it  was  not  yet  half  done.  This  Western  geography, 
of  which  most  of  us  know  so  little,  was  a  tremendous 
thing  in  the  times  before  the  railways  came. 

Starting  now  down  the  Pacific  side  of  the  Great 
Divide,  the  traveler  passed  over  a  hundred  and 
twenty-five  miles  of  somewhat  forbidding  country, 


308  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

crossing  the  Green  River  before  he  came  to  Fort 
Bridger,  the  first  resting  point  west  of  the  Rockies, 
ten  hundred  and  seventy  miles  from  the  Missouri. 
This  was  a  delightful  spot  in  every  way,  and  the 
station  was  always  welcomed  by  the  travelers.  The 
Bear  River  was  eleven  hundred  and  thirty-six  miles 
from  Independence,  and  to  the  Soda  Springs,  on  the 
big  bend  of  the  Bear,  was  twelve  hundred  and  six 
miles.  Thence  one  crosBed  over  the  height  of  land 
between  the  Bear  and  the  Port  Neuf  rivers,  the 
latter  being  Columbia  water;  and,  at  a  distance  of 
twelve  hundred  and  eighty-eight  miles  from  Inde- 
pendence, reached  the  very  important  point  of  Fort 
Hall,  the  post  established  and  abandoned  by  the  East- 
erner, Nathaniel  Wyeth.  This  was  the  first  point 
at  which  the  trail  struck  the  Snake  River,  that  great 
lower  arm  of  the  Columbia,  which  came  dropping 
down,  from  its  source  opposite  the  headwaters  of  the 
Missouri,  as  though  especially  to  point  out  the  way 
to  travelers,  just  as  the  South  Fork  of  the  Platte  led 
to  the  Spanish  Southwest.  There  lay  our  pathways, 
waiting  ready  for  us! 

At  the  Raft  River  was  another  point  of  great  in- 
terest; for  here  turned  aside  the  arm  of  the  trans- 
continental trail  that  led  to  California.  This  fork 
of  the  road  was  thirteen  hundred  and  thirty-four 


THE  OEEGON  TRAIL  309 

miles  from  the  Missouri.*  Working  as  best  it  might 
from  the  Raft  River^  do^Ti  the  Great  Snake  valley, 
touching  and  crossing  and  paralleling  several  differ- 
ent streams,  the  trail  ran  until  it  reached  the  Grande 
Ronde  valley,  at  the  eastern  edge  of  the  difficult 
Blue  Mountains,  and  seventeen  hundred  and  thirty- 
six  miles  from  the  starting  point.  The  railway  to-day 
crosses  the  Blues  where  the  old  trail  did.  Then  the 
route  struck  the  Umatilla,  and  shortly  thereafter  the 
mighty  Columbia,  the  "Oregon"  of  the  poet,  and  a 
stream  concerning  which  we  were  not  always  so 
placid  as  we  are  to-day.  It  was  nineteen  hundred 
and  thirty-four  miles  to  the  Dalles,  nineteen  hundred 
and  seventy-seven  miles  to  the  Cascades,  two  thou- 
sand and  twenty  miles  to  Fort  Vancouver,  and 
twenty-one  hundred  and  thirty-four  miles  to  the 
mouth  of  the  Columbia;  though  the  trail  proper 
terminated  at  Fort  Vancouver — the  same  post,  as 
we  shall  see,  for  which  the  hero  Jedediah  Smith 
headed  when  he  was  in  such  dire  distress,  in  the 
mountains  of  southwest  Oregon.f 

This  was  the  way  to  the  Pacific,  the  trail  across 
the  Rockies,  the  appointed  path  of  the  heroes  that 


♦The  later  California  trail  passed  farther  to  the  south,  along 
the  upper  end  of  the  Great  Salt  Lake,  leaving  the  main  trail 
at  the  upper  bend  of  the  Bear,  to  the  east  of  Fort  HalL 

tV.  Chapter  IV,  Vol.  ni;  "Early  Explorers  of  the  Trans-Mis- 
souri." 


310  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

ventured  forth  into  the  unknown  lands,  as  well  as  of 
the  men  that  followed  them  safely  in  later  day^.  It 
was  but  a  continuation  of  the  way  to  the  Missouri, 
of  the  way  across  the  Alleghanies ,  a  part  of  the  path 
of  the  sftrange  appointed  pilgrimage  of  the  white  race 
in  America. 


CHAPTER  IV 

EABLY  EXPLOREES  OF  THE  TRANS-MISSOURI 

It  is  customary  to  read  and  to  teach  history  in  the 
time-honored  fashion  which  begins  at  the  beginning 
and  comes  on  down  until  to-day,  not  skipping  the 
battles  and  not  forgetting  the  tables  of  dynasties, 
royal  or  political.  Without  wishing  to  be  eccentric  or 
iconoclastic,  none  the  less  one  may  venture  to  sug- 
gest that  there  may  be  a  certain  virtue  in  beginning 
with  events  well  within  our  reach  and  comprehension, 
and  then  going  backward,  which  is  to  say  going 
forward,  in  our  knowledge  of  our  field.  This  is  es- 
pecially useful  as  a  method  in  studying  the  history 
of  the  West  of  the  trans-Missouri. 

We  have  seen  that  the  first  Fremont  expedition 

had  no  feature  of  discovery  attached  to  it  beyond  the 

climbing  to  the  top  of  a  mountain  that  had  been 

known  by  many  for  years,  but  which  no  one  else  had 

wanted  to  climb,  because  of  the  general  knowledge  of 

the  fact  that  buffalo  and  beaver  did  not  reside  on 

the  mountain  tops.    We  know  that  Fremont,  when 

he  stood  at  the  South  Pass,  was  in  the  middle  of  a 

coT-i^trv  that  had  been  well  known  when  he  was  a 
311 


312  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

child.  We  have  seen  that  his  journey  across  the 
plains  was  over  a  country  perfectly  understood  and 
fully  charted.  There  were  hostile  Indians  on  the 
plains  in  those  days,  to  be  sure,  yet  Indians  are  far 
simpler  as  a  problem  if  you  yourself  know  the  exact 
distances  between  grass  and  watering  places  and  cover 
and  good  game  country.  All  this  information  Fre- 
mont received  ready  prepared.  Fremont  commanded ; 
Kit  Carson  led. 

For  Kit  Carson  we  may  feel  a  certain  reverence 
as  a  man  of  the  real  West;  but  shall  we  believe  that 
even  Kit  Carson  divided  with  Fremont  the  experi- 
ence of  setting  foot  in  a  new  and  virgin  world  ?  ^ot 
so.  KJit  Carson  himself,  great  man  as  he  was,  never 
claimed  to  be  a  great  explorer.  He  is  properly  to  be 
called  a  great  traveler,  not  a  great  discoverer.  He 
perhaps  found  some  beaver  streams  at  first  hand,  but 
he  himself  would  have  been  the  first  to  admit  that  he 
got  all  the  great  features  of  the  Rockies  at  second 
hand.  Before  him  there  were  discoverers  and 
pseudo-discoverers,  aetual  as  well  as  false  prophets 
of  adventure. 

If  we  go  by  dates  alone  we  shall  find  ourselves 
presently  concerned  with  Captain  Bonneville,  some- 
time famous  as  an  "explorer^'  of  the  Eocky  Moun- 
tains. Him  we  may  class  as  one  of  the  pseudo- 
discoverers.   He  was  an  army  oflBcer,  who  discovered 


THE  TRAi^rS-MISSOUEI  313: 

nothing,  but  who  obtained  a  great  reputation 
through  the  chronicling  of  his  deeds  in  the  Rocky 
Mountains;  so  great  that,  having  grossly  exceeded 
his  leave  of  absence,  he  was  eventually  reinstated  in 
the  Army  after  he  had  lost  his  conunission,  the 
president  of  the  United  States  remarking  that  he 
"could  not  fail  so  to  reward  one  who  had  con- 
tributed so  much  to  the  welfare  of  his  country" ! 
Bonneville  was  a  lucky  man.  He  losi  but  few 
mules  and  but  few  men.  He  brought  back  a  map 
on  which  was  founded  the  greater  part  of  his 
reputation,  maps  and  scientific  nomenclature  hav- 
ing been  ever,  in  the  estimation  of  some,  held  to  sur- 
pass any  original  discoveries  in  geography  and 
natural  history. 

Bonneville's  map  had  a  certain  value  at  the  time, 
yet  it  held  little  actual  first  hand  information,  be- 
cause it  was  built  upon  knowledge  derived  from 
Gallatin,  from  that  big  man.  General  Ashley, 
the  fur  trader,  and  from  the  latter's  gallant 
associate,  Jedediah  Smith.*  As  to  Bonneville  him- 
self, he  was,  unless  we  shall  except  Fremont,  the 
first  great  example  of  the  class  later  to  be  known 


♦All  of  these  maps,  by  the  ■way,  must  have  been  at  the  dis- 
posal of  Frfimont;  yet  we  do  not  learn  that  he  believed  the 
east  and  west  course  of  the  Buena  Ventura  was  an  impossibility, 
although  Jedediah  Smith  had  long  since  shown  the  Inaccuracy  of 
this  old  idea,  which  later  was  to  cost  Fremont  so  much  suSdiing; 
in  the  mountains  of  upper  California. 


314  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

as  '^tenderfoot."  A  certain  glory  attaches  to  Mm, 
Lecause  lie  was  the  first  man  to  take  a  wagon  train 
through  the  South  Pass,  which  he  did  ten  years 
before  Fremont  "discovered"  that  country. 

Bonneville  went  West  in  1832,  two  years  before  Kit 
Carson  stopped  trapping  beaver  for  the  reason  that  it 
no  longer  paid  him.  The  lucky  captain  traveled  up 
the  Platte  valley  to  Fort  Laramic;,  then  broke  across 
on  the  old  mountain  road  of  the  West,  up  the  Sweet- 
water, to  the  South  Pass,  thence  getting  upon  the  Pa- 
cific waters,  the  headwaters  of  the  Green  Eiver;  one 
of  the  two  great  arms  of  the  Colorado,  and  an  im- 
portant stream  in  fur  trading  days.  Obviously, 
Bonneville  wanted  to  grow  rich  quickly  in  the 
fur  trade,  being  more  intent  on  that  than  on 
exploration  for  geographical  purposes.  He  discov- 
ered that  there  was  already  a  W^est  beyond  him, 
even  then  a  distinct  region,  with  ways  of  its  own 
and  men  of  its  own.  He  continued  to  move 
about  in  the  mountains  for  a  couple  of  years  more, 
the  South  Pass  serving  as  the  center  of  his  opera- 
tions; but  really  it  is  of  little  concern  what  Bonne- 
ville did  during  the  remainder  of  his  long  stay  in 
the  West.  We  may,  none  the  less,  after  a  fashion, 
call  Bonneville  one  of  the  predecessors  of  Carson,  if 
we  shall  date  Carson's  earthly  existence  only  from 
his  connection  with  Fremont.    How,  then,  did  the 


THE  TEA¥S-MISSOTJEI  315 

lucky  captain  indirectly  serve  as  predecessor  of  quiet 
and  valid  Kit  Carson? 

It  was  in  this  way.  Bonneville  had  with  him  an 
old  Santa  F6  trail  man  named  J.  E-.  Walker; 
for  we  must  remember  that  in  1832  the  Santa 
Fe  trail  had  really  seen  its  best  days.  Walker 
wanted  to  go  to  California,  and  Bonneville  was 
eager  to  have  him  do  so,  for  the  worthy  catptain. 
was  far  more  concerned  about  beaver  than  about 
geography;  and  there  was,  as  we  shall  presently 
discover,  a  very  good  reason  to  foresee  an  abun- 
dance of  beaver  in  California.  Bonneville  and  his 
lieutenant,  when  these  plans  first  matured,  were 
still  on  the  Green  River,  this  being  the  year  after 
they  had  first  reached  the  Rockies.  The  fur  trade- 
was  not  prosperous;  even  thus  early  they  found 
competition  in  the  Rocky  Mountains.  The  country 
was  not  new  enough.  The  West,  as  viewed  from 
the  headwaters  of  the  Green  River,  lay  still  farther 
forward  in  the  course  of  the  setting  sun.  Walker 
must  go  to  California  and  bring  back  from  it  its 
beaver  peltry. 

Walker,  therefore,  on  July  twenty-seventh,  1833, 
left  Bonneville  on  the  Green  River  and  started  on  the 
tremendous  journey  toward  the  Pacific  Ocean.  He 
took  with  him  forty  men,  and  perhaps  later  picked  up 
a  dozen  wandering  trappers  or  so,  who  desired  to  joia 


.316  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

the  California  venture.  Here,  then,  was  a  discov- 
erer who  started  for  California  more  than  a  decade 
before  Fremont  did;  more  than  sixteen  years  be- 
fore any  one  suspected  California  to  be  a  land 
of  gold.  The  trapping  of  beaver,  and  not  the  dig- 
ging of  gold,  was  the  first  cause  of  Califomian 
exploration  by  the  Americans  of  the  upper  West. 
The  beaver  was  a  fateful  animal. 

Walker  dropped  down  the  Green  Eiver  into  the 
valley  of  the  Great  Salt  Lake,  which  was  at  that 
time  a  perfectly  well  known  country,  though  it  had 
not  been  described  in  any  official  reports.  Thence 
lie  headed  westward  across  the  Great  Basin,  whose 
terrors  had  so  long  held  back  even  the  hardy  trappers 
of  the  mountain  region.  He  gave  the  name  Barren 
Eiver  to  the  stream  now  called  the  Humboldt.  He 
gave  his  own  name  to  another  stream.  After  some 
fashion  he  won  across  the  great  desert,  and  crossed 
also  the  Sierra  range,  accomplishing  this  latter  feat 
about  October  twenty-fifth.  He  was,  perhaps,  the  first 
man  to  see  the  Yosemite  valley,  though  as  to  that  we 
can  not  be  certain.  By  the  end  of  November,  1833, 
he  was  within  view  of  the  Pacific  Ocean. 

After  all,  then,  it  did  not  seem  to  be  so  hard  to 
get  across  the  countr}^  in  those  early  times.  Nor 
was  it  so  difiicult  to  return.  Walker  had  fifty-two 
men  and  three  hundred  and  sixty-five  horses  when 


THE  TEAN-S-MISSOURI  317 

he  started  eastward  in  February,  1834.  He  had,  of 
course,  met  that  Spanish  civilization  which  first 
explored  the  Colorado  River  and  first  settled  the 
Pacific  slope.  Walker  now  had  guides,  Indians  of 
the  land,  who  led  him  eastward  across  the  Sierras, 
somewhat  south  of  the  place  where  he  crossed  going 
west. 

Once  over  the  mountains,  he  headed  north- 
ward along  the  eastern  edge  of  the  range,  until  he 
intercepted  his  own  west-bound  trail,  which  he  fol- 
lowed back  until  he  reached  what  is  now  known  as 
the  Humboldt  Eiver.  Thence  he  went  north  to  the 
Snake  Eiver,  and  so  on  back  to  the  rendezvous  on 
the  Bear  Eiver.  At  the  rendezvous  he  made  public 
what  information  he  could  add  to  the  general  store. 
Thus  it  was,  perhaps,  that  Carson  and  his  confreres 
learned  more  than  they  had  known  before  of  the 
beaver  country  beyond  the  Sierras.  That  rendez- 
vous of  the  old  mountain  men — ah!  who  will  one 
day  understand  it  and  immortalize  it?  That  was  a 
great  market,  a  great  jouriial,  a  great  college! 
There  indeed  maps  were  made!  There  indeed 
geography  grew!  That  was  where  the  West  was 
really  learned  db  initio. 

This  mountain  market,  this  map-making  college 
of  a  primeval  West,  was  first  established  in  1824; 
hence  we  may  say  that  Walker,  in  1834,  had  no 


318  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

license  to  be  called  an  old-timer  in  the  West.  In 
1834  the  old  West  of  the  adventurers  was  done.*  He 
was  before  Fremont,  before  Carson's  leadership  of 
Frtoont;  but  there  was  some  one  else  before  him, 
a  man  who  had  crossed  the  continent  and  had  seen 
the  western  sea  even  before  Kit  Carson  made  his 
first  journey  thither  with  the  men  of  Taos  and 
Bent's  Fort  neighborhood;  even  before  Walker's 
successful  expedition  was  conceived. 

Who  was  this  earlier  man,  this  first  man  to  cross 
to  the  Pacific  by  the  land  trail?  No  less  than  one 
Smith,  Jedediah  Smith,  a  man  of  no  rank  nor  title, 
and  all  too  little  station  in  American  history.  This 
was  the  man  that  first  led  the  trappers  from  the  Eock- 
ies  west  to  California.  This  man,  Jedediah  Smith, 
is  indeed  a  hero.  !N"ot  a  boaster  but  an  adventurer; 
not  a  talker  but  a  doer  of  deeds;  the  very  man  fit 
to  be  type  of  the  Western  man  to  come.  Smith 
himself  was  the  product  of  a  generation  of  the 
American  West,  and  though  we  search  all  the 
annals  of  that  West,  v/e  shall  find  no  more  satis- 
fying record,  no  more  eye-filling  picture,  nor  any 
greater  figure  than  his  own.  He  is  worthy  of  a 
place  by  the  side  of  that  other  Smith,  the  John 
Smith  who  explored  Virginia,  near  the  starting 
place  of  the  American  star  of  empire.  What  pity 
that  Washington  Irving  did  not  find  Jedediah  Smith 

♦Again,  remember  this  significant  date  of  1834. 


THE  TEAN-S-MISSOURI  319 

rather  than  the  inconsequent  Bonneville,  and  eo 
immortalize  the  right  man  with  his  beautifying  pen! 
There  is  a  great  hero  story  left  untold! 

Our  Smith  was  a  member  of  that  firm  of  young 
men.  Smith,  Sublette  and  Jackson,  who  bought  out 
the  business  of  that  first  great  fur  trader.  General 
Ashley.     It  goes  without  saying  that  Smith  knew 
all  the  upper  country  of  the  Yellowstone,  the  Mis- 
souri, the  South  Pass  region,  the  Sweetwater,  the 
Green,  the  Bear,  long  before  he  first  resolved  to 
gratify  his  love  of  initial  adventure  and  to  head  out 
across  that  unknown  country  of  the  far  Southwest. 
We  are  getting  close  to  the  first  of  new-American 
things  when  we  come  to  the  story  of  his  journey. 
-There  had  been  early  Spaniards,  there  had  been  In- 
dians perhaps,  who  knew  the  way  across,  but  there 
Hs  none  to  pilot  Smith.  He  started  of  his  own  re- 
iolve  and  traveled  under  his  own  guidance.  They  had 
not  told  him,  as  they  had  told  Kit  Carson,  of  the  ex- 
cellent beaver  country  of  the  Sacramento.    The  vast 
country  beyond  the  Great  Salt  Lake  had  been  too 
.forbidding  for  even  that  later  hardy  soul  to  under- 
take as  yet;  and  the  reaches  of  the  Eockies  above  and 
below  the  eastern  edge  of  that  desert  had  contented 
all  of  Bridger's  hardy  companions.    The  more  rea- 
son, therefore,  thought  Smith,  that  he  and  his  little 
party  of  fifteen  men  should  cross  the  desert;    and 


320  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

he  did  so,  quite  as  thougli  it  were  a  matter  of 
course. 

Having  no  guide,  lie  simply  went  west  as  well  as 
he  could,  clinging  to  grass  and  water  as  he  went.  He 
left  the  rendezvous  near  Salt  Lake  in  1826,  crossed 
the  Sevier  valley,  struck  the  Virgin  or  Adams  Eiver, 
followed  the  Colorado  for  a  time,  and  at  length  hroke 
boldly  away  over  the  avrful  California  desert,  until, 
in  such  way  as  we  can  but  imagine,  he  reached  at 
length  the  Spanish  settlements  of  San  Diego.  This 
was  in  the  month  of  October.  Smith  crossed  the 
Sierras  near  the  point  where  runs  to-day  the  Atchison, 
Topeka  and  Santa  Fe  Eailroad.  He  was  somewhat  in 
advance  of  the  engineers. 

Although  we  do  not  learn  that  Smith  had  any 
guide  or  any  advance  information,  it  seems  that  the 
Spaniards  did  not  appreciate  the  difficulties  under 
which  he  had  visited  them.  They  bade  him  leave 
the  country  at  once.  Perhaps  Smith  was  not  quite 
candid  vriih.  the  Spaniards,  for,  though  he  promised 
compliance,  instead  of  starting  directly  back  to  the 
eastward,  he  went  north  four  hundred  miles,  put  out 
his  traps  and  wintered  on  the  San  Joaquin  and 
Merced  rivers.  He  found  there  a  trapper's  El  Dorado. 

This  information,  of  course,  would  be  more  val- 
uable when  imparted  to  his  friends  eastward  in  the 
Eockies.    Hence  we  observe  Smith  leaving  his  party, 


THE  TRANS-MISSOUEI  321 

and  taking  witli  him  only  two  men,  seven  horses  and 
two  mules,  calmly  starting  back  again  to  the 
Rockies,  which  by  this  time  must  have  seemed  to 
him  an  old  and  well  settled  country.  In  the  in- 
credible time  of  twenty-eight  days  he  was  back  again 
at  the  southwest  comer  of  Salt  Lake.  We  can  not 
tell  just  how  he  made  this  journey.  Perhaps  he 
crossed  the  Sierras  near  the  Sonora  Pass,  thence 
went  east,  far  to  the  south  of  the  Humboldt  River, 
and  south  also  of  what  is  now  called  Walker  Lake. 
We  must  remember  that  neither  this  river  nor  lake 
had  any  name  when  Smith  was  there.  Jedediah 
Smith  antedated  all  names,  all  maps,  all  geography! 
Yet  all  this  was  not  so  very  long  ago,  if  we  reflect 
that  it  took  three  hundred  years  to  find  the  source 
of  the  Mississippi  River  after  its  mouth  had  been 
discovered.  It  is  not  yet  one  hundred  years  back 
to  Smith. 

Jedediah  Smith  was  no  man  to  waste  time.  He 
told  his  friends  what  he  had  found  beyond  the  snowy 
range.  By  July  thirteenth,  1827,  he  was  ready  with 
eighteen  men  of  a  new  party  to  start  back  for  Cali- 
fornia. Now  he  began  to  meet  the  first  of  his  extraor- 
dinarily bad  luck,  the  first  of  a  series  of  misfor- 
tunes that  must  have  stopped  any  man  but  himself. 
The  Spaniards  seem  to  have  had  some  notion  of 
Smith's  intentions,  and  they  set  Indians  to  watch 


322  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

the  trails  down  the  Virgin  and  the  Colorado.  These 
met  Smith  near  the  Colorado  River  and  killed 
ten  of  his  men.  Almost  destitute.  Smith  reached 
the  Spanish  settlements  of  San  Gabriel  and  San 
Diego  only  to  meet  with  further  mdsfortune.  His 
native  guides — for  now  he  had  learned  how  to  secure 
Indian  guides — were  imprisoned,  and  he  himself  was 
thrown  into  jail  at  San  Jose.  He  was  released  on 
condition  that  he  leave  the  country;  which  he 
proceeded  to  do  after  a  fashion  peculiarly  his 
own.  He  traveled  three  hundred  miles  to  the  north 
and  wintered  on  a  stream  now  called,  from  that  fact, 
the  American  Fork. 

All  this  time  he  was  finding  good  beaver  country, 
and  the  packs  of  the  little  party  grew  heavier  and 
heavier.  Why  he  did  not  now  cross  the  Sierras  and 
get  back  home  again  we  do  not  know ;  but  instead  of 
going  east,  he  struck  northwest,  until  he  nearly 
reached  the  Pacific  Ocean.  Thence  he  turned  inland, 
and  headed  due  north, — ^which  meant  Oregon.  It  is 
easy  to-day,  but  Smith  had  no  map,  no  trail,  no  trans- 
portation save  that  of  the  horse  and  mule  train.  All 
the  time  he  and  his  party  continued  to  pick  up  a 
greater  store  of  beaver. 

At  last,  on  July  twenty-fourth,  1828,  somewhere 
near  the  Umpqua  Eiver,  they  established  a  temporary 
camp.     On  that  day  Smith  left  camp  for  a  time,  and 


THE  TRANS-MISSOURI  333 

as  he  returned  he  met  Indians,  who  fired  upon  him. 
He  got  back  to  the  bivouac,  only  to  find  it  the  scene 
of  one  of  those  horrible  Indian  butcheries  with  which 
the  trapper  of  that  day  was  all  too  familiar.  Ten 
men  out  of  his  new  party  had  been  killed  on  the 
Colorado.  Here,  about  the  camp  in  Oregon,  lajr 
fifteen  more  of  his  men,  dead,  scalped  and  mutilated. 
The  horses  were  gone.  Three  of  his  companions  had 
escaped,  but  these  had  fled  in  a  panic,  each  on  his 
own  account.  The  discoverer.  Smith,  was  there  alone 
in  the  mountains,  without  map,  without  guide,  with- 
out counsel.  There  was  a  situation,  simple,  primeval, 
Titanic !   There  indeed  was  the  West ! 

Smith  was  a  religious  man,  a  Christian.  His  was  an 
inner  and  unfailing  courage  not  surpassed  by  that 
of  any  known  Western  man.  Perhaps  he  sought 
Divine  counsel  in  this  his  extremity;  at  least  he 
lost  neither  courage  nor  calmness.  He  knew,  of 
course,  that  there  was  a  Columbia  River  somewhere; 
for  this  was  in  1828,  and  by  that  time  the  Columbia 
was  an  old  story.  He  knew  that  this  great  river  was 
north  of  him,  and  knew  that  there  were  settlements 
near  its  mouth,  as  we  shall  presently  understand. 
He  further  knew  that  the  North  Star  pointed  out  the 
north.  Alone,  with  his  rifle  as  reliance,  he  made 
that  tremendous  journey  northward  which  Fremont, 
with  his  full  party,  made  in  an  opposite  direction, 


324  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

on  a  parallel  line  farther  to  the  eastward,  only 
after  untold  hardship,  though  Fremont  had 
men  and  animals  and  supplies.  Sustained  by  Provi- 
dence, as  he  believed.  Smith  at  length  accomplished 
his  journey  and  reached  the  Hudson  Bay  post  at 
Fort  Vancouver. 

We  may  now  see  the  strange  commercial  condi- 
tions of  that  time.  We  say  that  Jedediah  Smith  was 
the  first  to  cross  from  the  Eockies  to  the  Pacific; 
but  this,  of  course,  means  only  that  he  was  the  first 
to  cross  at  mid-continent.  There  had  been  others 
on  the  Columbia  before  Smith.  The  Hudson  Bay 
factor.  Doctor  McLaughlin,  a  great  and  noble  man,  a 
gentleman  of  the  wilderness,  meets  the  wanderer  as 
a  friend,  although  he  is  in  the  employ  of  a  rival 
company.  He  sends  out  a  party  to  recover  Smith's 
lost  packs  of  beaver  at  the  abandoned  camp  far  to 
the  southward.  Almost  incredible  to  say,  these  men 
do  find  the  furs. 

McLaughlin  gives  Smith  a  draft  on  London  for 
twenty  thousand  dollars,  it  is  said,  in  payment  for 
these  furs!  Strange  contrast  to  the  treatment 
Ashley  and  his  men  accorded  the  Hudson  Bay 
trapper,  Ogden,  some  years  earlier,  when  the 
latter  was  in  adversity  in  the  Eockies !  Strange  story 
indeed,  this  of  the  adventures  of  Jedediah  Smith! 
Survivor  of  thirty  of  his  men,  escaped  from  a  Spanish 


THE  TKANS-MISSOUEI  325 

prison,  robbed,  nearly  killed,  after  one  of  the  most 
perilous  journeys  ever  undertaken  in  the  West,  Smith 
emerges  from  this  desperate  trip  across  an  unmapped 
country  with  twenty  thousand  dollars,  and  none  of 
his  men  left  to  share  it! 

In  March,  1829,  Smith  started  east  from  Fort 
Vancouver  to  find  his  partners,  Sublette  and  Jack- 
son. When  he  reached  the  Flathead  country  he  was 
much  at  home,  for  he  had  been  there  before.  Thence 
he  headed  to  the  Snake  Eiver,  where  he  met  Jackson, 
"who,"  says  our  historian,  naively,  "was  looking  for 
him !"  The  ways  of  that  time  were,  after  all,  of  a 
certain  sufficiency.  Sublette  he  finds  on  the  Henry 
Fork  on  August  fifth,  also  much  as  a  matter  of  course. 
Strange  lands,  strange  calling,  strange  restoration 
after  unusual  and  wild  experiences — so  strange  that 
we  find  nothing  in  the  life  of  Crockett  to  parallel  it 
in  valor  and  initiative,  nothing  in  Boone's  to  surpass 
it,  nothing  in  Carson's  to  equal  it,  and  nothing  in  the 
story  of  any  adventurer's  life  to  cast  it  in  the  shade. 

This  was  indeed  authentic  traveling,  authentic  dis- 
covering, and  upon  this  was  based  the  first  map  of  a 
vast  region  in  what  was  really  the  West.  After  all 
this  was  done,  the  knowledge  spread  rapidly,  we 
may  suppose.  This  was  how  Carson's  friends  learned 
of  the  Sacramento.  This  is  how  the  discoveries  of 
Fremont  were  forerun;  for  the  latter,  under  Car- 


S26  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

son's  guidance,  simpl}^  circumnavigated  ihe  Y2Lr,i 
region  which  Smith  both  circumnavigated  and 
crossed  direct.  Headers  would  not  receive  the  plain 
story  of  Jedediah  Smith  as  fit  for  fiction.  It  would 
be  too  impossible. 

We  might  pause  to  tell  the  end  of  so  great  a  m.an 
as  this.  At  last  Smith  and  his  historic  partners 
found  the  fur  trade  too  much  divided  to  be  longer 
profitable.  In  1830  the  three  went  to  St  Louis  to 
take  a  venture  in  the  Santa  Fe  trade,  this  being 
two  years  before  Captain  Bonneville  sallied  out  into 
the  West  Contemptuous  of  the  dangers  of  the  prai- 
ries, after  facing  so  long  those  of  the  mountains, 
these  three  hardy  Westerners  started  across  the 
plains  with  a  small  outfit  of  their  own.  Far  out  on 
the  Arkansas  they  were  beset  by  the  Comanches. 
Fighting  like  a  man  and  destroying  a  certain  num- 
ber of  his  enemies  before  he  himself  fell,  Jedediah 
Smith  was  killed.  He  met  thus  the  logical  though 
long  deferred  end  of  a  life  that  had  always  been 
careless  of  danger. 

Gregg,  in  his  ^^Scenes  and  Incidents  in  the  West- 
em  Prairies"  (the  book  later  known  as  ^^The 
Commerce  of  the  Prairies'^),  mentions  the  death 
of  Smith,  but  of  his  life  and  character  he  seemed 
to  have  had  but  little  knowledge.  The  his- 
torian of  the  Santa  Fe  trade  was  just  starting  West 


THE  TRANS-MISSOURI  327 

when  Smith  closed  his  own  career.  Smith  was  dead 
before  Bonneville  saw  the  Rockies.  We  see  that  he 
antedated  Walker  and  Carson  and  Fremont.  The 
fatal  prairie  expedition  of  these  great  fur  traders, 
Smith,  Sublette  and  Jackson,  went  on  westward  up 
the  Arkansas  with  the  mountain  trader,  Fitzpatrick, 
who  was  bound  for  a  rendezvous  far  to  the  north  of 
Bent's  Fort — the  same  Fitzpatrick  whom  Carson  met 
above  Bent's  Fort  in  one  of  his  own  expeditions. 
Now  we  may  begin  to  see  the  trails  of  our  trappers 
and  adventurers  interlacing  and  crossing,  and  can 
understand  who  were  the  real  adventurers,  who  the 
actual  explorers. 

Great  and  satisfying  a  figure  as  Jedediah  Smith 
makes,  we  may  not  pause  with  him  too  long,  and 
may  not  believe  him  to  have  been  at  the  very  first  of 
things.  He  was  the  first  to  cross  over  the  Rockies 
and  the  Sierras  in  mid-America,  yet  he  was  not 
the  first  white  man  to  stand  on  the  soil  of  the 
dry  Southwest.  Examine  the  older  maps  and  you 
shall  see  along  the  Virgin  and  the  Colorado  the  line 
of  the  old  Spanish  trail  from  California  to  the  mis- 
sion settlements  of  New  Mexico. 

It  can  not  accurately  be  told  who  first  made  this 
trail,  crossing  the  valley  of  the  Colorado,  whose  flood 
drains  two  hundred  and  twenty-five  thousand  square 
miles  of  mountain  and  desert  In  1731  Father  Garces 


328  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

built  a  mission  on  the  Colorado  neai  tlie  montli  of  the 
Gila.  But  lie  was  not  the  first.  Cardenas,  a  fellow- 
soldier  with  Coronado,  is  perhaps  the  first  man  to 
write  of  the  Grand  Canon  of  the  Colorado ;  but  he  was 
not  the  first  to  discover  it  nor  the  first  to  see  that 
stream.  Alarcon,  a  member  of  the  party  of  the  sea 
captain  Uloa,  was  the  first  man  to  reach  the  Colorado. 
This  was  in  the  year  1540,  the  ship  of  TTioa  reaching 
the  Gulf  of  California  in  1539. 

This  was  a  small  matter  of  three  hundred  years  be- 
fore Fremont  saw  the  South  Pass,  some  three  hundred 
years  before  Jedediah  Smith  crossed  the  desert  to  Cal- 
ifornia, and  something  like  three  hundred  years  be- 
fore the  upper  sources  of  the  Mississippi  Eiver  were 
known!  So  thus  we  may  leave  this  portion  of  the 
West  to  await  the  Gadsden  Purchase,  and  the  addition 
of  the  land  won  by  Houston  and  Crockett  and  Fannin 
and  Travis  and  other  hero  friends  to  the  south  and 
east  of  the  purchased  territory. 

As  for  the  transportation  employed  during  these 
early  times,  we  may  repeat  a  few  facts  by  way  of 
insistence.  The  Santa  Fe  trade  began  with  pack 
trains,  but  saw  wagons  used  in  1822.  In  1826  Gen- 
eral Ashley  took  his  little  wheeled  cannon  through 
the  South  Pass  to  his  fort  on  Utah  Lake.  In  1830 
Smith,  Sublette  and  Jackson  made  the  Journey  from 
the  Missouri   Eiver   with  mule  teams   and  wagons 


THE  TEANS-MISSOURI  329 

as  far  as  the  Wind  River;  and  they  said  they  could 
have  gone  on  over  the  South  Pass  with  their  wagons 
had  they  wished  to  do  so.  Poor  Bonneville!  His 
distinction  of  taking  the  first  wagon  through  the 
South  Pass  is  as  empty  as  that  of  Fremont  in 
climbing  his  mountain  peak  near  that  same  South 
Pass.  Both  accomplishments  had  been  left  undone 
by  earlier  visitors  simply  because  they  did  not  want 
to  do  these  things.  We  see  that,  before  Carson  or 
Walker  or  Smith,  the  courses  and  headwaters  of  the 
Yellowstone  and  the  Missouri  and  the  Columbia 
rivers  were  all  very  well  known.  We  have  noted  that 
Smith  knew  of  the  Columbia  settlements.  This  he 
knew  because  he  had  learned  it  at  the  rendezvous. 
How  came  these  settlements  on  the  Columbia?  We 
shall  have  to  go  to  Xew  York  to  find  the  answer  to 
that  question. 

Everybody  knows  the  story  of  Astoria  and  the 
beginning  of  the  American  Fur  Company.  John 
Jacob  Astor  of  New  York  secured  a  New  York 
charter  for  that  company  April  sixth,  1808,  very  soon 
after  hearing  the  results  of  the  Lewis  and  Clark 
expedition.  He  had  a  great  purpose  in  his  mind. 
He  had  fought  out  and  bought  out  competitors  in 
the  fur  trade  all  along  the  Great  Lakes;  had  met 
and  gaged  the  resources  of  the  Northwest  Com- 
pany, then  beginning  to  rival  the  ancient  Hudson 


330  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

Bay  Company  in  the  wild  race  across  the  continent 
It  was  Astor's  idea  to  beat  the  Northwest  Fur  Com- 
pany to  the  month  of  the  Columbia,  and  hence 
command  what  was  supposed  to  be  the  rich  fur 
trade  of  that  new  and  unknown  region.  He  intended 
to  send  ships  laden  with  trading  supplies  to  the 
mouth  of  the  Columbia  Eiver,  there  to  take  on  the 
cargoes  of  furs  caught  by  his  own  men  or  secured 
in  trade  with  the  Indians.  These  ships,  laden  with 
furs,  were  to  go  thence  across  the  Pacific  to  China, 
and  were  to  return  from  China  to  New  York,  laden 
with  the  products  of  the  Orient,  which  our  old-time 
historian,  Henry  Howe,  thought  must  some  time  come 
acroae  the  American  continent  by  rail.  Here,  then, 
was  a  commercial  undertaking  of  no  small  dimen- 
sions. 

Mr.  Astor  attached  two  strings  to  his  bow.  He 
fitted  out  one  expedition  by  sea,  and  one  by  land,  the 
objective  point  of  each  being  the  mouth  of  the 
Columbia  Kiver.  He  relied  largely  upon  men  he  had 
known  in  the  fur  trade  of  the  Great  Lakes  for  the 
leadership  of  his  land  party,  but  he  made  the  great 
mistake  of  placing  three  men  in  practically  equal 
command.  Unfortunately,  he  made  another  mistake 
in  establishing  the  leadership  of  his  sea  expedition. 
There  was  but  one  leader  there,  the  captain  of  the 
ship  Tonquin,  Thome  by  name,  a  man  by  no  means 


THE  TPtA^^S-MISSOUKI  331 

fitted  to  command  any  company  of  adventurers.  The 
Tonqnin  left  New  York  September  sixth,  1810.  It 
reached  the  month  of  the  Columbia  Kiver  March 
twenty-second,  1811.  A  party  was  soon  thereafter 
detached  for  the  erection  of  the  proposed  post  to  be 
known  as  Astoria.  The  Tonquin  then  proceeded 
northward  up  the  coast.  Its  commander,  domineer- 
ing, overbearing,  not  fitted  to  trade  with  the  Indians, 
succeeded  in  exciting  the  wrath  of  the  Coast  Indians. 
The  latter  attacked  his  ship  and  practically  destroyed 
his  crew,  one  of  whom,  an  unknown  fighting  man, 
whose  name  is  lost  by  reason  of  events,  blew  up  the 
ship,  killing  many  savages  and  destroying  all  vestige 
of  the  encounter.     This  was  about  June  thirteenth, 

1811. 

As  to  the  land  party  under  its  three  leaders,  we 
may  say  that  the  winter  was  spent  near  St.  Joseph, 
Missouri,  but  on  April  twenty-first,  1811,  about  a 
month  after  the  ship  Tonquin  had  reached  the  mouth 
of  the  Columbia,  this  land  party  started  out  on  its 
long  and  arduous  western  journey.  By  June  twelfth 
they  had  traveled  thirteen  hundred  and  twenty-five 
miles  up  the  Missouri  Eiver,  being  then  in  the  neigh- 
borhood of  the  Arickaree  villages.  There  they  bought 
horses  and  started  boldly  westward,  leaving  the 
waterway  of  the  Missouri,  the  first  of  the  great  com- 


332  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

panies  of  transcontinental  travelers  to  proceed  along 
the  cord  of  the  great  bow  of  the  Missouri. 

There  were  sixty-four  of  these  Astorians,  and  they 
had  with  them  eighty-two  horses.  They  must  have 
passed  to  the  north  of  the  Black  Hills.  They  crossed 
the  Big  Horns  and  on  September  twenty-ninth  were 
on  the  Wind  Eiver,  a  stream  later  to  be  so  well  known 
by  trappers  and  traders.  They  ascended  the  Wind 
Eiver  about  eighty  miles,  seeking  for  a  place  to  cross 
the  Eocky  Mountains.  They  had  Crow  Indians  as 
guides  through  the  Big  Horns,  and  west  of  the  Big 
Horns  the  Shoshones  had  guided  them.  These  Indians 
detected  signs  of  other  Indians  on  ahead,  and  hence 
did  not  present  to  these  travelers  the  natural  and 
easy  way,  through  the  South  Pass, — an  ascent  so 
gentle  that  one  can  scarcely  tell  when  he  has  reached 
the  actual  summit.  The  Astorians  crossed  the 
mountains  probably  at  what  is  now  known  as  the 
Union  Pass,  a  little  to  the  north  of  the  South  Pass. 

On  September  twenty-fourth  they  started  from  the 
Green  River  to  the  Snake  Eiver,  and  on  October 
eighth,  1811,  reached  Fort  Henry,  which,  at  the 
time  the  Astorians  reached  it,  was  an  abandoned  post. 
It  seems  that  even  these  early  travelers  found  a  West 
in  which  there  had  been  some  one  before  them! 
Thence,  scattered  and  disorganized,  on  foot  and  by 
boat,  this  party  undertook  to  go  down  the  Snake 


THE  TRANS-MISSOITRI  333 

Eiver  to  the  Columbia.  B}^  January  first,  1812,  they 
reached  the  valley  known  as  the  Grande  Ronde.  By 
January  eighth  some  of  them  were  on  the  Umatilla 
River,  and  some  of  them  reached  the  Columbia  by 
January  twenty-first.  Here  they  met  Indians,  who 
told  them  of  the  destruction  of  the  Tonquin  and  the 
loss  of  a  great  number  of  their  associates — an  inci- 
dent that  shows  well  enough  the  strange  fashion  in 
which  news  travels  in  the  wilderness. 

Some  parties  under  Mackenzie,  McLellan  and 
Reed  separated,  came  down  the  Clearwater  to  the 
Lewis  or  Snake  River,  and  thence  voyaged  on  down- 
stream as  best  they  could.  Some  of  these  reached 
Astoria  January  eighteenth,  1812,  ahead  of  others  of 
their  scattered  companions,  who  seem  to  have  wan- 
dered aimlessly  about  the  upper  tributaries  of  the  Co- 
lumbia. The  party  under  Hunt  reached  Astoria 
February  fifteenth,  1812.  Crooks  and  Day,  others  of 
the  expedition,  did  not  come  in  until  May  eleventh. 
A  party  of  thirteen  trappers,  who  had  been  left  be- 
hind to  pursue  their  calling,  did  not  reach  the  post 
until  January  fifteenth,  1813.  The  trip,  measuring 
by  the  time  of  the  first  arrivals  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Columbia,  had  required  three  hundred  and  forty  days. 
Thirty-five  hundred  miles  of  country  had  been  cov- 
ered. The  Northwestern  Company  had  been  beaten 
in  the  race  to  the  mouth  of  the  Columbia  by  just 


334  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST' 

three  months.  It  was  beaten  by  a  gait  of  about  ten. 
miles  a  day!  We  build  railroads  almost  as  rapidly 
as  that  to-day. 

Discovering  that,  ten  years  before  Jedediah  Smith 
made  his  journey  northward  across  Oregon  to  Fort 
Vancouver,  there  were  well  established  lines  of  travel 
and  well  established  settlements  on  the  Columbia  and 
its  tributaries,  we  may  think  that  by  this  time  we 
are  cloee  to  the  first  of  things  in  Western  history. 
Of  course  we  know  that  ahead  of  the  Astoria  party 
was  the  Lewis  and  Clark  expedition.  Before  Lewis 
and  Clark  came  the  Louisiana  Purchase,  which 
offered  us  this  territory  for  exploration;  and  the- 
Lewis  and  Clark  expedition  will  serve  as  the  start- 
ing point  of  our  scheme  of  the  history  of  the  trans- 
Missouri. 

We  may,  perhaps,  reinforce  these  salient  points  in 
memory  if  we  go  back  once  more  well  upon  this  side 
of  our  former  starting  point,  and  work  to  it  again 
upon  slightly  different  lines.  Eor  instance,  we  may 
ask,  who  built  Fort  Henry,  the  fort  that  the  Asto- 
rians  found  abandoned, west  of  the  Eocky Mountains? 
The  answer  is.  Major  Andrew  Henry,  some  time  part- 
ner of  that  energetic  early  merchant.  General  Ashley. 
Henry  was  at  the  Three  Forks  of  the  Missouri  in 
1810.  He  crossed  southward  through  the  mountains 
and  built  Fort  Henry  in  the  fall  of  that  year.    This 


THE  TRANS-MISSOURI  335 

was  the  first  post  built  west  of  the  Continental 
Divide.  It  was  erected  on  what  is  now  known  as  the 
Henry  Fork  of  the  Snake  River. 

But  was  Major  Henry  himself  the  first  man  lo 
(penetrate  into  the  Rockies?  He  was  not.  ^Yho, 
then,  was  ahead  of  Henry?  The  answer  is,  Manuel 
Liza,  that  strange  character  of  Spanish,  French  and 
American  blood,  who  was  perhaps  the  first  of  the 
"Western  merchants  to  catch  the  full  significance  of 
the  Lewis  and  Clark  expedition.  We  have  heard  of 
one  William  Morrison,  of  Kaskaskia,  Illinois,  who 
sent  a  representative  to  far-oS  Santa  Fe.  This  same 
William  Morrison  was  the  partner  of  our  strange 
genius,  Manuel  Liza,  in  the  first  fur  trading  venture 
up  the  Missouri.  They  fitted  out  one  keel-boat  for 
the  Northwest  trade  in  the  spring  of  1807. 

Did  Liza  and  his  hardy  crew  of  keel  boatmen  find 
an  untracked  and  uninhabited  wilderness  ?  Not  alto- 
gether such;  for,  as  they  were  ascending  the  ancient 
waterway,  they  met  coming  down  one  John  Colterj 
that  hardy  soul  who  had  left  the  Lewis  and  Clark  ex- 
pedition to  return  to  the  Yellowstone  River  for  thd 
purpose  of  doing  a  little  beaver  trapping  on  his  own 
account.  Colter,  it  may  be  remembered,  is  thought 
to  have  been  the  first  discoverer  of  the  region  now 
included  in  the  Yellowstone  National  Park.  This 
country  was   discovered  and  forgotten,  to  be  latef 


336  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

officially  '^discovered'^  on  the  same  basis  that  Fremont 
discovered  other  portions  of  the  Rockies.  Colter  is 
the  last  link  in  this  chain.  He  brings  us  back  again 
to  Lewis  and  Clark,  the  first  of  the  up-stream  ad- 
venturers to  penetrate  the  region  of  the  trans-Mis- 
souri. 

We  may  all  the  better  strengthen  the  backward- 
running  chain  by  one  or  two  more  links  ex- 
tending from  comparatively  recent  dates,  to  those 
that  we  may  consider  as  marking  the  beginning 
of  things  in  the  West.  For  instance,  we  have  heard 
much  of  General  Ashley,  that  enterprising  and  for- 
tunate early  fur  trader,  whose  success  was  the  first  to 
call  the  attention  of  the  capital  of  the  East  to  the 
enormous  profits  of  the  fur  trade  in  the  West  when 
properly  conducted.  Ashley's  first  partner  was  Major 
Andrew  Henry. 

The  first  rendezvous  of  the  mountain  men  was  that 
arranged  in  1824  for  Ashley  and  Henry's  men.  Ash- 
ley himself  undertook  to  explore  the  Green  River, 
a  stream  then  thought  to  empty  into  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico,  no  less  an  authority  than  Baron  Hum- 
boldt having  made  this  particular  error  in  West- 
em  geography.  Shipwrecked,  xA^shley  none  the  less 
escaped,  and  somewhere  near  the  point  where  he  met 
his  disaster,  he  cut  his  name  on  a  rock,  together 
with  the  date,  1825.    Major  Powell,  later  an  official 


THE  TEA^S-MISSOURI  337 

discoverer,  in  his  expedition  down  the  Colorado  Eiver, 
found  the  place  where  Ashley  was  wrecked  on  that 
stream  just  forty-four  years  earlier.  Major  Powell 
read  the  engraved  inscription  as  1855  instead  of  1825. 
In  his  account  he  sends  some  of  Ashley's  men,  sur- 
vivors of  the  wreck,  over  to  Salt  Lake  City,  and  has 
them  go  to  work  upon  the  Temple !  ^^Of  their  sub- 
sequent history,^  remarks  Major  Powell,  gravely,  ^H 
have  no  knowledge." 

This,  as  Mr.  Chittenden  points  out  in  his  admirable 
work,  *^The  American  Fur  Trade,"  is  one  of  the  jests 
of  Western  history,  for  Ashley  was  on  the  Green 
Eiver  thirty  years  before  the  Mormons  left  Missouri ! 
We  shall  need  to  allow  a  few  years  to  pass  before  we 
<jome  to  the  transcontinental  migration  of  the  Mor- 
mons and  the  building  of  their  Temple.  Ashley 
foreran  all  that.  He  was  at  Salt  Lake  and  on  the 
Green  River,  and  quite  across  the  Mormon  country,  a 
short  time  after  the  first  Astorian  party  had  passed 
on  west. 

Thus,  if  we  begin  to  study  too  closely  into  the  early 
history  of  the  trans-Misaouri,  w^e  begin  to  lose  all  re- 
spect for  its  mysteries,  and  come  to  think  of  it  as  a 
country  that  was  never  new,  but  was  always)  well 
known.  Indeed,  there  is  much  warrant  for  this.  Wit- 
ness again  the  journeys  of  that  straightforward  char- 
acter, Lieutenant  Pike,  the  first  American  officer  to 


338  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

reach  the  headwaters  of  the  Mississippi  River,  and  to 
arrange  for  the  proper  respect  for  the  American  flag 
in  that  far-off  country.  After  Pike  had  returned 
down  the  Mississippi  River  and  had  been  ordered  to 
explore  the  country  near  the  Rockies,  around  the 
headwajters  of  the  Red  River,  he  began  to  cross  the 
trails  of  some  of  these  earlier  adventurers  of  whom 
we  have  been  speaking.  Thus,  in  1806,  while  Pike 
is  making  his  way  across  the  the  plains,  he  hears  of 
Lewis  and  Clark's  descent  of  the  Missouri.  On 
August  nineteenth,  1806,  he  states  that  he  finds  the 
"place  where  Mr.  Chouteau  formerly  had  his  fort." 
Chouteau  was  one  of  these  same  early  fur  traders,  as 
we  shall  find  if  we  care  to  go  into  the  minutiae  of  his- 
tory. Lieutenant  Pike  describes  this  fort  as  "al- 
ready overgrown  with  vegetation;"  so  it  could  not 
have  been  new  in  1806. 

From  this  point  Lieutenant  Pike  goes  to  "Manuel 
Liza^s  fort,"  which  then  marked  another  advance 
post  of  the  trans-Missouri  travel.  Next  he  heads 
westward,  touches  the  Grand  and  White  rivers 
and  reaches  the  Solomon  Fork.  Here  he  meets  the 
Pawnees,  discovers  that  they  are  wearing  Spanish 
medals,  learns  that  the  Spaniards  have  sent  an  expe- 
dition into  that  country  from  the  New  Mexican  set- 
tlements, and  finds  a  "very  large  road"  over  which 
the  Spaniards  have  returned  to  the  westward.    Thus 


THE  TRAILS-MISSOURI  339 

it  seems  that  not  even  good  Zebulon  was  to  have 
a  West  all  his  own. 

Forsooth,  Lieutenant  Pike  might  have  gone  back 
more  than  two  hundred  years,  and  have  bethought 
himself  of  the  old  Spaniard  Coronado,  who  in  the 
year  1540  journeyed  from  Mexico  across  the  plains 
until  he  stood  on  the  banks  of  the  Missouri  River, 
from  which  Pike  himself  started  forth.  And  strange 
enough,  if  we  seek  for  coincidences,  is  the  fact  that 
Coronado  himself  recounts  that  he  met  on  the  Mis- 
souri River,  that  is  to  say,  on  the  stream  that  is  now 
<?alled  the  Missouri,  an  Indian  who  wore  a  silver 
medal  that  was  evidently  the  work  of  a  white  man. 
There  is  something  singular  for  you,  if  you  seek  a 
strange  incident !  Where  did  Coronado's  Indian  get 
his  medal?  This  was  closer  to  the  first  of  things. 
It  must  have  come  from  the  settlements  of  the  whites 
on  the  lower  Atlantic  slope.  But  by  what  process  of 
travel  ?  Are  we  indeed  to  have  any  mysteries  in  the 
West,  and  shall  we  ever  be  able  to  set  any  date  in  our 
scheme  of  transportation  properly  to  be  called 
initial  ? 

If  we  look  at  a  map  of  the  trans-Missouri  as  it 
existed  in  1840,  prior  to  the  ofl&cial  exploration  of 
the  West,  we  shall  indeed  find  that  ^"hardly  one  of  the 
^eat  geographical  features  was  unknown."  We  shall 
£nd  the  Missouri  and  the  Yellowstone  rivers  dotted 


340  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

thick  with,  the  stockades  of  the  fur  traders.  We  shall 
find,  if  we  search  in  the  records  of  those  days,  that 
the  whites  had  long  lived  among  the  Indians  and  had 
come  to  know  their  ways.  We  shall  discover,  if  we 
care  to  helieve  such  apochryphal  history  as  that  of- 
fered hy  the  ostensible  Indian  captive,  John  D. 
Hunter,*  that  the  Indian  himself  has  been  some- 
thing of  an  explorer.  Hunter  tells  of  plains  In- 
dians, dwellers  of  the  prairie  country  near  the  Mis- 
souri, who  themselves  made  the  transcontinental 
journey  and  saw  the  mouth  of  the  Columbia.  He 
states  that  this  journey  was  traditional  at  that  time, 
and  adds  that  he  himself,  with  a  party  of  plains 
Indians,  likewise  made  this  journey  to  the  Columbia, 
crossing  the  Eockies  at  a  different  pass  in  coming 
back  from  that  met  with  in  the  western  journey. 

We  may  believe  his  story  or  not,  as  we  like ;  but  we 
are  bound  to  believe  that  these  plains  Indians  ante- 
dated the  first  white  men  in  the  discovery  of  the  South 
Pass  amd  of  many  other  features  of  the  Kocky  Moun- 
tains. It  is  doubtful,  indeed,  whether  any  party  of 
white  men  in  those  early  days  ever  crossed  the  moun- 
tains excepting  under  the  entire  or  partial  guidance 


♦This  story  of  an  alleged  captivity  among  the  Indians,  ex- 
tending from  childhood  to  young  manhood,  is  by  some  consid- 
ered unauthentic.  The  volume,  a  curious  one,  was  printed  in 
London,  in  1825. 


THE  TEANS-MISSOUKI  341 

of  Indians,  who  took  them  over  countr}^  known  to 
themselves. 

We  may  believe,  therefore,  that  the  native  Indian 
savages  furnished  the  source  of  original  knowledge 
to  our  first  explorers.  If  you  be  familiar  with  the 
Eockies  of  to-day,  you  shall  now  and  again  see  the 
old  Indian  trails,  overgrown  and  unused,  sinking 
back  into  the  earth.  In  the  valley  of  the  Two  Medi- 
cine, on  the  reservation  of  those  same  Blackfeet  who 
once  fought  the  trappers  so  boldly,  the  writer  once 
found,  high  up  on  the  mountain  side,  a  plainly 
traceable  trail  that  led  down  to  the  summit  of  a 
high  ridge,  whence  one  could  look  far  to  the  east- 
ward, to  where  the  Sweet  Grass  hills  loomed  out 
of  the  level  sweep  of  the  prairies.  There  was  a 
hunter  with  me,  a  man  married  among  the  Blackfeet, 
of  whom  I  asked  regarding  this  trail.  "It  is  the  old 
Kootenai  trail,''  said  he;  "and  if  you  follow  this  back 
to  the  West,  it  will  take  you  through  a  pass  of  the 
Eockies  and  into  the  country  of  the  Flatheads." 

Here,  then,  was  indeed  an  ancient  and  historic 
pathway,  one  not  used  to-day  by  any  rails  of  iron,  nor 
followed  even  by  the  pack  trains  of  the  "adventurers" 
of  to-day.  Here  was  a  pass  discovered,  no  man  may 
tell  when,  by  Indians  who  wandered  eastward  and 
westward  across  the  upper  Eockies.  Perhaps  the  old 
trappers  also  know  this  trail;  though  there  are  not 


342  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

wanting  those  who  believe  that  less  than  a  double 
decade  ago  the  valleys  at  the  headwaters  of  the  Si 
Mary's  Lake  still  lay  untouched  by  the  foot  of  white 
man.  Here,  along  this  forgotten  mountain  trail, 
came  the  Kootenais  with  their  war  parties  against 
the  Blackfeet  Here,  perhaps,  came,  from  the  upper 
Pacific  coast,  the  first  horses  used  by  the  plains 
Indians  in  the  far  North.  Be  that  as  it  may,  my 
companion  and  I  without  doubt  stood  on  one  of  the 
original  or  aboriginal  pathways ;  and  he  had  been  dull 
indeed  who  did  not  find  an  interest  in  that  fact 
and  in  the  surroundings.* 

^^Vho  made  the  first  Indian  trails  ?"  I  asked  of  my 
friend,  as  we  stood  at  the  eastern  end  of  this  old 
pathway.  He  pointed  to  similar  paths  crossing  the 
sides  of  the  ridge  near  to  us,  and  other  little  paths 
leading  up  the  valley  along  the  sides  of  the  moun- 
tains. 

*T;t  was  the  elk  and  the  deer  and  the  mountain 
sheep,"  said  he.  "They  found  the  easiest  ways  to 
travel;  they  found  the  grass  and  the  water." 


*  The  trail  of  the  white  race  over  the  Appalachians  was  but 
the  trail  of  the  red  men.  The  Sioux  Indians,  for  generations 
inhabitants  of  the  upper  plains  country  of  the  West,  formerly- 
lived  east  of  the  Appalachians.  The  first  settlers  of  Kentucky 
and  Tennessee  simply  followed  the  ancient  ways  by  which  the 
Indians  crossed  into  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi.  And  there,  as 
in  the  West,  the  Indians  but  followed  the  paths  of  the  wild  ani- 
mals, which  clung  nearly  as  possible  to  the  courses  of  the 
streamg.— V.  "The  Indians  of  To-day;"  Grinnell. 


CHAPTEE   V 

ACROSS  THE  WATERS* 

Twenty-five  years  ago  potatoes  were  so  high  in 
price  in  certain  towns  of  the  Kocky  Mountains  that 
the  merchants  handling  them  often  reserved  the 
right  to  retain  the  peelings,  which,  in  turn,  were  sold 
for  planting  purposes,  the  eyes  of  the  potatoes  thus 
having  a  considerable  commercial  value,  obviously 
in  proportion  to  the  distance  from  the  nearest  rail- 
road or  steamboat  line.  This  situation  could  not 
forever  endure.  There  must  come  a  day  when  we 
could  afford  to  throw  away  our  peelings,  and  throw 
them  away  cut  thick  and  carelessly.  Equally  true  is 
it  that  the  time  is  coming  in  America  when  we  shall 
again  gather  up  our  potato-peelings  and  cherish  them^ 
There  you  have  the  three  ages  of  the  West.f 


•The  Century  Magazine,  January,  1902. 

tAnother  instance  of  changed  standards  in  the  West  may  be 
seen  in  the  revolution  as  to  petty  prices.  Up  to  twenty  years 
ago,  in  most  Rocljy  Mountain  communities,  the  quarter-dollar 
was  the  smallest  coin  in  circulation.  With  the  railroads  came 
the  dime,  the  nickel,  and  at  last  the  penny;  but  they  came  to 
a  West  that  was  no  more. 

A  Montana  periodical  thus  comments  on  these  matters  as  they 
appeared  at  the  time  when  the  railroad  reached  Miles  City: 

"The  advent  of  the  Northern  Pacific  Railroad,  in  November, 
1881,  brought  about  a  complete  change  in  the  methods  and  man- 

343 


344  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

The  early  American  life  was  primitive,  but  it  was 
never  the  life  of  a  peasantry.  Look  ahead  into  the 
future,  the  time  of  the  second  saving  of  the  peelings. 
Once  there  was  a  time  in  the  West  when  every  man 
was  as  good  as  his  neighbor,  as  well  situated,  as  much 
contented.  It  would  take  hardihood  to  predict  such 
conditions  in  the  future  for  the  West  or  for  America. 

For  half  a  hundred  years  America  looked  across 
the  Alleghanies.  It  was  nearer  to  England  than  to 
Iowa.  Our  standards  in  fashion,  in  art,  in  literature, 
were  yet  those  of  an  older  world.  Then  came  the  age 
of  Americanism,  when  it  mattered  not  to  the  women 
of  the  frontier  what  were  the  modes  brought  in  the 
latest  ship  from  London  or  Paris.  Under  the  Mon- 
roe doctrine  of  the  frontier  the  women  made  their 
petticoats  of  elkskin,  and  found  it  good.  Behold 
now  a  day  when  Iowa  is  as  near  as  England,  and 
England  almost  as  near  as  New  York.  Again  the 
contents  of  the  ships  are  valid  matter  of  curiosity 
to  the  women  of  the  West. 


ners  of  the  people.  The  railroad  brought  the  community  at  once 
in  touch  with  the  more  concise  and  narrower  life  of  'the  States'; 
the  'nickel'  displaced  the  'quarter'  as  the  smallest  coin  in  use, 
and  prices  shrunk  accordingly.  .  .  .  This  proposed  innovation 
was  hotly  contested  for  a  while  by  the  adherents  of  the  'two-bit' 
theory,  resulting  finally  in  a  compromise  that  established  'two- 
for-a-quarter'  as  the  going  rate.  It  would  be  hard  to  describe 
the  feeling  of  dejection  that  overwhelmed  the  old-timers  when 
this  conclusion  was  reached.  It  was  accepted  by  them  as  a  pro- 
nounced and  evident  sif?n  of  decadence." 


ACKOSS  THE  WATERS  345 

We  are  in  the  third  age^  the  age  of  steam.  The 
pack-horse  and  the  sailboat  were  vehicles  of  the  in- 
dividual or  of  the  section.  Wheeled  vehicles  afforded 
a  speedier  and  more  flexible  intercommunication  that 
made  the  idea  of  secession  forever  impossible,  and 
made  us  a  national  America.  The  common  carrier 
made  us  and  will  destroy  us  as  a  national  entity.  The 
wheels  have  written  epochal  record  on  the  surface  of 
the  land.  Long  and  devious  and  delightful,  weary 
and  sad  and  tragic,  are  the  old  wheel-tracks  of  the 
West,  worn  deep  into  a  soil  red  with  blood,  on  paths 
lined  with  flowers,  and  with  graves  as  well. 

At  the  half-way  point  of  the  century  the  early 
wheels  of  the  West  were  crawling  and  creaking  over 
trails  where  now  rich  cities  stand.  The  Red  River 
carts  from  Pembina,  their  wheels  sawn  from  the  ends 
of  logs,  and  voicing  a  mile-wide  protest  of  unlubri- 
cated  axle,  crept  down  to  a  ^^St.  Paul's'^  that  had 
a  population  of  about  twelve  hundred,  mostly  half- 
breeds.*  A  yard  of  cloth  or  a  butcher-knife  still 
sold  for  twenty  dollars  at  old  Fort  Benton  in  the 
beaver  country. 


*A  settler  who  moved,  in  1854,  from  Virginia  to  Iowa  com- 
plained that  for  a  whole  year  in  that  frontier  country  iie  saw  no 
fruit  except  a  half-peck  of  crab-apples.  It  was  much  the  same  In 
Minnesota  at  that  time;  yet,  in  the  year  1900,  the  city  of  St.  Paul 
alone  used  one  thousand  dollars'  worth  of  grapes  each  day  for 
fifty  days,  all  imported,  and  at  an  average  price  of  only  fifteen 
cents  per  basket.  This  fruit  was  largely  imported  from  the  state 
of   New  York. 


346  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

The  Western  railroads  were  only  little  spurs  of 
iron  thrusting  out  into  the  prairies.  Indeed, 
they  could  not  always  boast  rails  of  iron,  as  wit- 
ness the  old  wooden-railed  road  from  Chicago 
to  Galena.  Still  eager,  still  harkening  to  the  Voices 
of  the  West,  the  men  who  were  to  make  the  West 
pressed  on,  taking  the  railway  as  far  as  it  went, 
then  the  stage-coach  and  the  wagon  and  the  horse 
and  the  lone  path  of  the  farthest  venturer. 

The  man  of  Virginia  heard  that  the  prairies  of 
Iowa  would  give  him  a  farm  for  a  price  per  acre  less 
than  one-tenth  that  commanded  by  the  red  clay  hills 
of  the  Old  Dominion.  He  forsook  the  land  of  terrapin 
and  peaches,  of  honeysuckle  and  sunshine,  and  started 
West  by  rail  across  the  Alleghanies,  across  Ohio  by 
the  early  Pennsylvania  railway  system,  beyond  the 
Iboom  town  of  Chicago,  across  the  Mississippi,  and 
out  into  the  black  mud  of  the  prairies  for  fifty  miles 
or  so.  Thence  by  stage  he  went,  the  head  of  his  tear- 
ful wife  against  his  breast,  but  in  that  breast  beating 
a  heart  whose  one  thought  was  the  ''TDetter 
chance."  It  was  the  better  chance  for  these  babes 
that  tugged  at  the  skirts  of  their  mother — this  was 
what  the  father  wanted,  and  this  was  why  the  mother 
went  with  him,  grieving,  as  she  yet  must,  for  the 
home  land  that  she  perhaps  would  never  see  again. 

One  such  settler,  who  went  West  from  Virginia 


ACROSS  THE  WATERS  347 

into  an  agricultural  state  in  1854,  said  that  lie  came 
West  in  order  that  he  might  be  able  to  educate  his 
children.  He  educated  them.  To-day  one  child  is 
buried  in  California,  one  in  Dakota,  three  live  in 
Iowa,  and  one  in  Hlinois.  Such  is  the  typical  record 
of  an  American  family. 

The  man  of  old  ^ew  England  might  cross  this 
trail  of  the  Southern  man,  and  find  himself  betimes 
in  Kansas  or  Xebraska,  forerunner  of  that  day  when 
it  was  to  be  said  that  Massachusetts  was  west  of  the 
Missouri  River,  as  indeed  is  true  to-day.  Boston  be- 
gan to  build  Chicago,  and  the  first  of  those  men  went 
West  that  were  to  make  the  old  Red  River  cart-towns 
of  St.  Paul  and  Minneapolis  little  else  than  New 
England  communities — cities  of  a  state  which  to-day 
has  a  permanent  school  fund  of  nearly  eight  million 
dollars,  and  a  university  fund  of  nearly  one  million 
dollars,  in  securities  largely  made  up  of  the  bonds 
of  other  states,  among  them  a  large  amount  of  the 
funding  bonds  of  the  ancient  state  of  Virginia.  It 
was  a  race  into  the  West — a  race  in  which  now  the 
North  outstripped  the  South,  the  commercial  outran 
the  heroic,  the  ax  and  the  plow  outstripped  the  rifie 
and  its  creed. 

In  1826  arose  one  Philip  Evans  Thomas,  sometime 
known  as  the  father  of  American  railroads,  son  of 
a  Baltimore  banker,  and  living,  as  we  may  thus  no- 


348  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

tice  as  a  curious  fact,  near  to  that  early  abiding-place 
of  the  star  that  marked  the  center  of  American 
population,  that  Ararat  from  which  the  Western 
civilization  started  outward.  Early  in  his  life  Philip 
Evans  Thomas  saw  how  excellent  it  would  be  if  only 
water  could  be  made  to  run  up-stream.  He  had  seen 
the  use  of  railroads  in  England,  and  had,  moreover, 
noted  the  beneficial  effects  upon  the  trade  of  Eastern 
cities  of  the  traffic  that  was  carried  by  canals^  He 
had  the  far-reaching  mind  of  the  world-merchant, 
whose  problem!  is  ever  that  of  transportation.  He 
saw  that  railroads  can  go  where  canals  can  not, 
and  he  presently  resigned  his  directorship  in  the 
Maryland  Canal,  because  he  saw  that  a  canal  can 
not  climb  a  hill,  and  that  mankind  could  not  forever 
go  around  the  hills  or  up  and  down  the  streams. 

It  was  on  February  twelfth,  1827,  that  Thomas 
called  together  twenty-five  of  the  leading  citizens  of 
Baltimore.  Comment  of  the  time  says  that  he  seemed 
touched  with  the  spirit  of  prophecy  as  he  spoke  of 
the  enterprise  that  was  to  cast  aside  the  moun- 
tains, to  unite  the  streams,  and  to  discover  what 
there  might  be  in  that  mysterious  land,  the  West — 
the  West  that  was  west  of  the  x\lleghanies  and 
in  or  near  the  Mississippi  valley.  Beyond  the  Mis- 
sissippi, of  course,  the  mind  of  man  might  not  go! 
The  minutes  of  this  notable  railway  meeting  are  pre- 


ACROSS  THE  WATERS  349 

Berved  in  a  pamphlet  known  as  "Proceedings  of  Sun- 
dry Citizens  of  Baltimore,  convened  for  the  Purpose 
of  Devising  the  Most  Efficient  Means  of  Improv- 
ing Intercourse  between  Baltimore  and  the  Western 
States." 

There  were  two  opinions  as  to  the  wisdom  of 
Mr.  Thomas's  project,  and  these  were  the  opinions 
of  the  North  and  of  the  South;  for  again  the  South 
was  to  be  the  pioneer  into  the  West,  and  again  the 
Xorth  was  to  follow.  The  cities  of  the  North  made 
loud  outcry  against  the  Baltimore  prophet,  and  said 
that  this  railroad,  if  built,  would  divert  from  them 
forever  the  traffic  that  was  then  coming  to  them 
from  the  W^est.  This  was  ever  the  typical  attitude  of 
the  upper  East  toward  the  West. 

None  the  less  the  enterprise  went  on,  and  the  Bal- 
timore and  Ohio  Railroad  Company  was  duly  organ- 
ized, an  act  for  its  incorporation  being  passed  on 
February  twenty-seventh,  1827.  The  stamp  of  suc- 
cess was  upon  the  idea  before  the  ink  had  dried 
on  the  records.  By  April  twenty-fourth  of  the 
same  year  stock  was  subscribed  to  the  figure  of  four 
million  one  hundred  and  seventy-eight  thousand  dol- 
lars. The  first  railway  planned  for  the  West — 
planned  because  there  was  a  West  and  because  that 
West  was  wanted  as  a  part  of  the  East — was  promptly 
elevated  into  one  of  the  most  important  commercial 


350  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

enterprises  of  the  time.  The  stock  was  coveted  by 
all,  and  the  struggle  was  for  first  place  in  the  line 
of  purchasers. 

It  can  not  be  within  the  present  purpose  to  particu- 
larize as  to  the  railroad  development  of  the  West, 
nor  to  attempt  the  unimportant  chronological  record 
of  first  one  and  then  another  of  the  multiplying  rail- 
ways that  early  began  to  crowd  out  into  the  West 
from  the  Eastern  centers.  The  important  thing  is 
the  tremendous  expansion  of  population  that  now 
ensued  for  the  Western  states,  the  blackening  of  the 
census  maps  in  spaces  once  barren,  the  crossing  and 
interweaving  of  the  Northern  and  Southern  popula- 
tions, which  now  occurred  as  both  sections  pressed 
out  into  the  West.  There  were  grandfathers  in  Vir- 
ginia now,  grandfathers  in  New  England.  The  sub- 
divided farms  were  not  so  large.  There  were  more 
shops  in  the  villages.  There  was  demand  for  ex- 
pansion of  the  commerce  of  that  day.  The  little 
products  must  find  their  market,  and  that  market 
might  still  be  American.  The  raw  stuff  might  still 
be  American,  the  producer  of  it  might  still  be  Ameri- 
can. So  these  busy,  thrifty,  ambitious  men  came  up 
and  stood  back  of  the  vanguard  that  held  the  flexi- 
ble frontier.  Silently  men  stole  out  yet  farther  into 
what  West  there  was  left;  but  they  always  looked 


ACROSS  THE  WATERS  351 

back  over  the  shoulder  at  this  new  thing  that  had 
come  upon  the  land. 

Thinking  men  knew,  half  a  century  ago,  that 
there  must  be  an  iron  way  across  the  United  States, 
though  they  knew  this  only  in  general  terms,  and 
were  only  guessing  at  the  changes  that  such  a 
road  must  bring  to  the  country  at  large.  Some  of 
these  guesses  make  interesting  reading  to-day.  Thus, 
in  1855  it  was  announced  as  a  settled  thing  that  the 
continental  route  could  not  lie  across  the  Northern 
Rockies,  because  in  that  region  the  heavy  snowfall 
would  block  all  railway  travel.  It  was  concluded 
that  there  were  only  four  points  on  the  Pacific  coast 
to  which  the  railway  might  address  itself:  San 
Diego,  San  Francisco,  "some  spot  to  be  chosen  on  the 
navigable  waters  of  the  Columbia,"  and  another  "on 
the  borders  of  the  Strait  of  De  Fuca,  in  the  new- 
Territory  of  Washington." 

The  government  of  the  country  was  so  slow  in  de- 
veloping this  railway  project  that  some  capitalists 
were  for  building  at  once  a  road  of  their  own,  and 
they  chose  the  route  from  Charleston  to  San  Diego. 
What  would  it  have  meant  to  this  country  had  this 
been  the  first  and  only  railway  across  the  continent? 
As  to  the  route  up  the  Platte  valley  and  over  the  mid- 
Rockies,  that  was  dismissed  as  quite  impracticable. 
"The  absence  of  timber  on  most  of  this  route  would 


352  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

prove  an  insuperable  objection  to  its  selection,  even 
were  it  not  ineligible  from  other  considerations/' 
comments  one  writer  of  the  day.  The  same  writer* 
says  that  the  route  from  San  Francisco  to  St.  Louis 
would  be  geographically  preferable,  bnt  admits  that 
the  "formation  of  the  intermediate  country,  and  the 
character  of  the  mountain-ranges  to  be  crossed,  are 
deemed  to  present  insuperable  difficulties  to  its  con- 
struction." 

The  bearing  of  these  reflections  upon  the  purpose 
in  hand  is  not  so  much  one  of  mere  literary 
curiousness  as  one  of  commercial  comparison.  The 
logic  of  that  time  carried  a  large  non  sequitur, 
"The  country  intervening  between  the  most  western 
limits  of  civilization  and  the  recently  settled  terri- 
tories of  the  Pacific,''  says  the  same  early  historian, 
"is  confessedly  little  known."  The  empire  of  the 
Middle  West  was  not  dreamed  of.  This  is  what  the 
new  road  was  to  do: 

"Instead  of  weary  months  of  travel  around  the 
capes  of  Africa  and  South  America,  less  than  a 
month  will  suffice  to  transport  the  teas  and  silks  of 
China,  the  coffee  and  the  spices  of  Java  and  Ceylon, 
to  the  great  Atlantic  cities,  thence  to  be  distributed 
9S  from  the  world's  depot  to  the  nations  of  Europe. 
But  not  only  will  this  new  mode  of  transit  take  to 

♦Henry  Howe;  "Tte  Great  West"  (1855). 


ACROSS  THE  WATERS  353 

itself  the  best  and  most  remunerative  part  of  the 
traffic  now  existing  between  eastern  Asia  and  Chiis- 
tendom,  but  it  will  also  create  a  new  traffic,  compared 
with  which  the  trade  now  existing  will  hear  almost 
no  comparison. 

"Instead  of  here  and  there  a  seaport  in  Cliina  hold- 
ing conimercial  relations  with  America,  this  nearness 
of  access  to  the  best  markets  of  the  world  will  stimu- 
late into  an  unprecedented  activity  the  raising  of  all 
agricultural  products,  the  manufacture  of  all  goods 
and  wares,  and  the  disinterring  of  all  the  mineral 
resources  which  the  three  hundred  millions  of  China 
can  furnish  us,  at  a  cheaper  rate  than  we  can  obtain 
them  elsewhere.  Japan,  with  a  population  almost 
double  our  own,  now  shut  out  from  all  intercourse 
with  the  rest  of  the  world,  must  soon  be  forced  by 
the  strength  of  circumstances  to  welcome  to  her 
ports  the  merchant  fleets  of  other  nations,  anxious 
and  eager  to  distribute  to  the  wide  world  the  rich 
products  of  her  soil,  her  climate,  and  her  domestic 
industry.  The  tropical  fruitf ulness  of  the  over-popu- 
lated islands  of  the  Eastern  Archipelago  will  also 
pour,  in  increased  abundance,  the  rich  spices  of  their 
balmy  breezes  through  this  new  and  rapid  conduit." 

Xot  so  bad  was  this  flowery  prophecy,  though  its 
fulfilment  was  to  run  over  into  another  century,  and 
to  fall  subsequent  to  a  still  greater  industrial  phe- 


354  ACEOSS  THE  WATERS 

nomenon,  the  gourd-like  maturing  of  the  trans-Mis- 
souri region.*  This  rapid  development  of  the  inte- 
rior region  of  America  was  not  foreseen  by  the  wisest 
of  the  prophets  of  fifty  years  ago.  Yet  unspeakably 
swift  and  startling  as  it  ha^  been,  it  was,  after  all, 
the  product  of  an  arrested  growth,  of  an  advance- 
ment upon  lines  substantially  different  from  those 
on  which  it  was  originally  and  naturally  projected. 

As  once  the  West  had  sought  to  secede,  now  at 
length  the  South,  foster-mother  of  the  West,  bethought 
herself  to  set  up  a  separate  land,  even  at  the  very  time 
when  there  was  in  progress  a  great  transcontinental 
project  that  was  to  make  all  this  country  one,  for- 
ever and  inseparable.  It  was  the  Civil  War  that  de- 
layed the  construction  of  the  Pacific  railway.  Had 
that  road  been  built,  had  the  roads  from  the  North 


*In  the  year  1900  began  the  great  tendency  toward  consolida- 
tion in  railway  interests.  Nor  did  the  sequence  cease  at  this  point. 
In  the  same  year  there  were  begun,  for  use  upon  the  Pacific 
Ocean  in  connection  with  this  same  transcontinental  route,  five 
giant  ocean-going  freight  ships,  the  largest  yet  known,  each  to  be 
750  feet  in  length,  of  74  feet  beam,  and  with  a  carrying  capacity 
of  22,000  tons.  These  ships  will  carry  American  cotton  to  Japan, 
for  use  instead  of  the  short-staple  cotton  of  India,  until  recently 
used  by  Japan.  They  will  enable  the  railroad-builders  of  Japan 
to  figure  as  exactly  on  the  price  of  a  ton  of  rails  as  can  the  con- 
tractor of  Kansas  or  Nebraska.  They  will  lay  down  a  barrel  of 
Minnesota  flour  in  China  or  the  Philippines  at  a  cost  for  carriage 
of  not  over  |1.25.  All  this  shows  to  what  extent  American  com- 
merce, made  active  by  American  transportation  methods,  is  in- 
vading the  markets  of  the  world;  for,  at  this  same  time,  Russia 
can  not  lay  down  a  barrel  of  (an  inferior)  flour  at  the  seaboard  of 
China  for  less  than  $4.25.  Surely  our  prophet  of  1855  dreamed  more 
"Wisely  than  he  knew! 


ACROSS  THE  WATERS  355 

into  the  South  been  built  half  a  generation  earlier, 
there  could  never  have  been  any  Civil  War.  The  in- 
dissoluble brotherhood  of  the  North  and  the  South 
would  have  been  established  a  generation  before,  and 
at  what  untold  saving  of  splendid  human  life !  This 
war,  fatally  and  fatefully  early — early  by  a  quarter 
of  a  century,  since  after  that  quarter-century  it  could 
never  have  attained  importance,  or  could  never  have 
been  at  all — changed  history  in  America  more  than 
any  vrritten  history  has  ever  shown.  Still  curiously 
and  intimately  connected,  it  was  the  South  and  the 
West  that  were  to  suffer  most  in  that  war,  cruel 
as  this  may  sound  to  that  splendid  East  that  poured 
its  blood  like  water  and  its  treasure  with  a  freedom 
the  West  might  not  equal. 

The  industrial  revolution  of  the  West  was  subse- 
quent to  the  Civil  War,  and  was,  to  large  extent, 
caused  by  the  Civil  War,  or,  rather,  was  dependent 
upon  the  same  conditions  that  had  part  in  bringing 
forth  that  war.  The  vast  and  virgin  West,  "con- 
fessedly but  little  known,"  lay  waiting  for  a  popula- 
tion. The  Eastern  portion  of  the  Northern  States 
had  its  own  population.  The  South,  under  the  con- 
ditions of  that  day,  offered  incalculably  more  oppor- 
tunity for  crude  labor  than  did  the  West ;  but  it  of- 
fered no  security  for  either  capital  or  labor.  There- 
fore it  was  that  the  Old  World  was  called  upon  to 


356  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

furnish  the  raw  labor  requisite  to  subdue  this  wild 
land. 

It  can  be  only  with  horror  that  we  reflect  that  the 
Old  W^orld  was  called  upon  also  to  furnish  us  a  peo- 
ple to  replace  the  more  than  half-million  dead  of 
as  grand  a  population  as  the  w^orld  ever  knew,  the 
flower  of  America,  Xorth,  South,  East,  and  West.  It 
would  have  been  this  splendid  army  of  men  that 
would  have  settled  the  West,  had  it  not  been  for  the 
war,  which  a  few  years  later  would  have  been  an  im- 
possible thing.  Could  that  half -million  dead  have 
arisen  from  the  grave  in  the  decade  following  that 
truly  cruel  war,  the  nomenclature  of  many  West- 
em  cities  would  be  different  to-day,  and  the  face  of 
the  census  maps  would  show  a  different  story.  To- 
day the  whole  upper  portion  of  the  population  chart 
of  the  United  States  is  black  with  the  indication  of 
a  foreign-bom  population.  The  only  part  of  this 
country  that  the  census  map  dares  call  American 
is  a  thin,  wavering  line  along  the  plateaus  of  Tennes- 
see and  Kentucky, — the  land  that  the  first  adventurers 
sought  out  when  they  crossed  the  AUeghanies.  It  is 
the  South  alone  that  is  to-day  x^merican.  It  was 
the  South  that  gave  us  the  new-American,  that 
splendid  figure  in  the  history  of  the  world. 

Within  two  months  in  the  year  1899,  fifty-seven 
thousand  foreigners  were  brought  to  this  country 


ACROSS  THE  WATERS  357 

to  be  made  over  into  Americans.  Among  these  were 
Croatians,  Slavs,  Armenians,  Bohemians,  Servians, 
Montenegrins,  Dalmatians,  Bosnians,  Herzegovin- 
ians,  Moravians,  Lithuanians,  l^Iagyars,  Jews,  Syr- 
ians, Turks,  Slovaks,  with  others  of  the  better-known 
nationalities,  such  as  English,  Germans,  French,  and 
Scandinavians.  Of  the  total  number  of  these  immi- 
grants, less  than  one-tenth  had  a  capital  as  great  as 
thirty  dollars  with  which  to  begin  life  in  the  new 
land.  Many  of  these  immigrants  from  lower  Europe 
linger  in  the  cities  of  the  West,  and  do  not  become 
a  part  of  the  agricultural  comralunities;  but  the  indi- 
rect tax  on  the  agricultural  communities  none  the 
less  remains.  They  become  only  parasites  upon  the 
parasitic  middlemen,  and  all  these  must  be  supported 
by  the  farms. 

It  must  be  conceded  that  the  new  problems  as- 
signed to  the  West  in  the  way  of  absorption  and 
assimilation  of  alien  population  in  these  days 
of  rapid  transportation  are  nothing  short  of 
serious  and  perplexing.  These  new  people,  brought 
out  in  swarms  by  means  of  the  rapid  wheels  of  steam- 
locomotion,  are  like  the  early  Americans  who  settled 
first  a  real  America.  They  are  very  poor;  their  fare 
must  be  coarse,  their  garb  mean,  their  opportunities 
for  self -improvement  but  meager.  Yet  how  different 
are  they,  the  product  of  the  third  age  of  transporta- 


358  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

tion^  from  those  Argonauts,  the  Southern  riflemen 
and  the  Northern  axmen,  who  toiled  with  oar  or 
slow-moving  wheel  across  this  land  in  the  days  so 
recently  gone  by ! 

There  are  three  great  pictures  of  the  West — one 
that  was,  one  that  is,  and  one  that  might  have 
been.  This  last  picture  is  a  sad  one  to  any 
thinking  man  not  concerned  in  politics.  The 
West  of  steam-transportation  has  not  so  much  im- 
pressed itself,  and  in  reason  could  not  be  expected 
so  to  impress  itself,  upon  its  population  as  did  that 
West  reached  by  slow-moving  wheels  when  the  natural 
difficulties  to  be  overcome  were  so  vastly  greater  for 
the  individual.  The  old  W^est  begot  character,  grew 
mighty  individuals,  because  such  were  its  soil  and 
sky  and  air,  its  mountains,  its  streams,  its  long  and 
devious  trails,  its  constant  stimulus  and  challenge. 

That  which  was  to  be  has  been.  The  days  of  the 
adventurers  are  gone.  There  are  no  longer  any  Voices 
to  summon  heroes  out  on  voyage  of  mystic  conquest. 
It  now  costs  not  so  much  heroism,  but  so  much 
money,  to  get  out  into  the  West,  and  it  costs  so  much 
to  live  there.  As  a  region  the  West  offers  few  special 
opportunities.  It  is  no  longer  a  poor  man^s  country, 
nor  is  any  part  of  America  a  country  good  for  a 
poor  man.  It  is  all  much  alike.  Our  young  men  of 
the  West  are  as  apt  to  go  East  to  seek  their  fortunes 


ACROSS  THE  WATERS  359 

as  to  try  them  near  at  home.  There  is  no  land  of  the 
free.  America  is  not  American.  Food  must  digest 
before  it  can  be  flesh  and  blood,  and  our  population 
must  digest  before  it  can  be  called  American. 

Twelve  years  ago  money  brought  two  per  cent,  a 
month  west  of  the  Missouri  River,  and  it  earned  it. 
To-day  you  can  get  a  barrelf  ul  at  five  per  cent,  a  year. 
It  is  only  free  men  who  can  afford  to  pay  two  per 
cent,  a  month — men  who  still  have  open  lands  to 
settle,  much  raw  wealth  to  dig  out  of  the  earth  and  a 
future  to  discount.  There  are  no  more  Oklahomas 
now.  We  have  stolen  most  of  the  reservations  from 
tlie  Indians,  and  a  few  men  have  stolen  most  of  the 
pine,*  and  nothing  short  of  a  syndicate  will  do  for 
a  mine  to-day.  You  may  search  far  for  eagle  faces, 
such  as  came  from  Maine  and  Carolina,  the  men  that 
followed  the  westward  course  of  the  young  star  of 
America. 

Away  with  the  saddle-blanket!  The  beaver  are 
gone,  and  the  range  cattle  are  all  fenced  in. 
Hang  up  the  rifle,  for  our  great  game  is  van- 
ishing. If  you  seek  a  pleasant  picture,  gaze  on  the 
accumulating  balance-sheets  of  some  monopolist's 
millions.    If  you  wish  to  hear  a  soothing  sound,  lis- 


*The  desecration  of  America,  in  the  terrible  devastation  of 
her  forests,  is  something  no  observant  man  can  face  with  com- 
posure. 


360  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

ten  to  the  wheels  that  go  and  come.  Content  your- 
self with  these  things;  else  you  must  admit  that, 
however  strong,  hrilliant,  and  consistent  was  our 
Western  drama  in  the  more  slowly  moving  days,  his- 
tory has  made  anticlimax  in  the  days  of  steam. 
Carry  your  conclusions  out  whimsically  if  you  like, 
and  reflect  that  in  the  year  1900  not  only  our  own 
Western  cow-punchers,  but  also  the  samurai  of 
Japan,  were  riding  bicycles,  and  the  newspapers  of 
Japan  were  reporting  the  prize-fights  of  America! 
This  is  civilization,  but  the  view  of  it  is  not  alto- 
gether comforting.* 

Augur  of  what  might  have  been,  but  for  our  Civil 
War,  was  that  long  line  of  white-topped  wagons  that 
streamed  vrestward  across  Illinois,  Iowa,  across  the 


*The  time  is  not  one  for  individual  optimism,  and  the  old 
hopefullj'^  self-reliant  spirit  of  the  West  must  be  content  to  lose 
its  personal  quality  in  the  larger  and  vaguer,  though  not  less 
certain,  tendencies  of  modern  life.  Bearing  upon  a  theme  kindred 
to  the  above,  James  Bryce,  author  of  "The  American  Common- 
v^ealth,"  recently  found  occasion  to  write: 

"National  ideals  to-day  tend  toward  a  large  and  strong  state, 
with  vast  external  possessions,  with  a  huge  army  and  navy,  with 
an  extending  trade,  and  great  consequent  wealth;  and  the  ideal 
of  education  is  less  toward  'unprofitable  culture'  and  more  toward 
subjects  that  enable  men  to  raise  themselves  in  the  world.  People 
now  talk  more  about  capital  and  labor.  Formerly  there  seemed 
rather  more  faith  in  the  power  of  reason,  rather  more  hope  of 
progress  to  be  secured  by  political  change.  Altogether  there 
seemed  rather  more  of  a  sanguine  spirit  formerly.  Mankind  must 
never  cease  to  cherish  and  follow  the  dream  of  that  golden  age, 
which  at  one  time  they  believed  to  lie  in  the  past,  but  which  for 
tome  centuries  had  been  supposed  to  glimmer  in  the  future.  They 
must  never  forget  that  hope.  But  the  golden  age  seemed  nearer 
in  1850  than  it  does  now." 


ACROSS  THE  WATERS  361 

Missouri  River,  out  into  the  West,  the  still  glorious 
and  alluring  West,  imjnediately  upon  the  close  of 
the  war.  This  was  not  an  influx  of  foreigners,  but 
a  hejira  of  native  Americans,  a  flood-tide  that 
could  not  wait  for  the  railroads  that  were  now  so 
swiftly  taking  up  the  new  and  mighty  problems 
of  a  convalescent  country.  "By  an  impulse,  provi- 
dential or  evolutionary,  but  irresistible,"  said  an 
American  statesman  of  that  decade,*  "civilization 
has,  during  the  present  generation,  moved  all  at 
once  and  in  concert,  in  a  process  of  territorial  expan- 
sion as  sudden  and  inexplicable  as  that  which  at  the 
close  of  the  fifteenth  century  impelled  the  nations 
of  Europe  to  voyages  which  resulted  in  the  discovery 
and  occupation  of  America.  .  .  .  The  United 
States  will  command  the  greatest  part  of  the  trade 
with  the  Chinese  Orient.  We  can  produce  every 
article  that  can  be  sold  in  this  new  and  limitless 
market."  Not  bad  reiteration,  this,  of  the  prophecy 
of  our  historian  of  1855.  The  latter  did  not  foresee 
our  Civil  War,  nor  could  he  have  foreseen  our  armies 
across  seas.  They  are  there  not  so  much  by  reason 
of  political  mistakes  or  political  wisdom  as  by  an  im- 
pulse "providential  or  evolutionary."  In  1865,  upon 
the  plains,  or  in  1900,  in  the  Asian  islands,  the  army 


*The   late   Cushman   K.    Davis,    United    States   senator   from 
Minnesota. 


363  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

was  only  the  escort.  It  is  not  our  army  that  will 
conquer  new  provinces  and  create  new  opportunities 
in  place  of  those  with  which  we  have  been  so  sadly 
careless  and  so  lavishly  generous;  it  is  our  railways 
and  our  steamshipsi  that  are  to  prove  our  conquer- 
ing agencies.  Thereby  we  shall  recoup  ourselves  at 
the  coffers  of  the  world. 

We  lose  all  sentimental  regrets  and  superficial 
reservations  when  we  come  to  examine  closely  the 
tremendous  revolutions  created  by  the  genius  of 
modem  transportation.  With  the  era  of  steam  came 
a  complete  reversal  of  all  earlier  methods.  For 
nearly  a  century  following  the  Eevolutionary  War 
the  new  lands  of  America  had  waited  upon  the  trans- 
portation. Now  the  transportation  facilities  were 
to  overleap  history  and  to  run  in  advance  of  progress 
itself.  The  railroad  was  not  to  depend  upon  the 
land,  but  the  land  upon  the  railroad.  It  was  strong 
faith  in  the  future  civilization  that  enabled  capi- 
talists to  build  one  connected  line  of  iron  from  Ore- 
gon down  the  Pacific  coast,  thence  east  of  the  mouth 
of  the  Father  of  Waters,  in  all  over  thirty-two  hun- 
dred miles  of  rail.  Then  came  that  daring  fiight 
of  the  Santa  Fe  across  the  seas  of  sand,  a  venture 
derided  as  folly  and  recklessness. 

The  proof  you  may  find  by  seeing  the  cities  that 
have  grown,  the  fields  which  bear  them  tribute.  North 


ACROSS  THE  WATERS  363 

and  south  and  east  and  west  the  prairie  roads  nm. 
The  long  trail  of  the  cattle-drive  is  gone,  and  the  cat- 
tle no  longer  walk  a  thousand  miles  to  pasture  or  to 
market.  Once,  twice,  thrice,  the  continent  was 
spanned,  the  dream  of  Robertson  made  manifoldly 
true,  and  the  path  across  the  continent  laid  well  and 
laid  forever.*  In  the  Middle  West  the  Great  Ameri- 
can Desert  was  cross-hatched  with  iron  lines  and 
dotted  full  with  homes  that  never  could  have  been 
but  for  those  iron  lines.  In  the  Northwest  lay  a 
land  of  almost  arctic  winters,  with  little  or  no  shel- 
ter, with  short  and  torrid  summers,  the  land  of  the 
Red  River  carts,  where  the  fur  traders  were  at  last 
replaced  by  the  raisers  of  number  two  hard  wheat. 

Into  this  region  came  a  large  foreign  population, 
sought  out  in  the  Old  W^orld  by  the  diligent  agents  of 
a  common  carrier  needing  business.  The  hard  plains 
of  the  North  were  literally  stocked  with  these  people. 
They  came  with  their  tickets  bought  through  to  such 
or  such  a  point  in  Minnesota  or  Dakota,  It  was  fore- 
seen that  the  mere  raising  of  wheat  could  not  build 
up  a  permanent  civilization,  and  the  railway  did  the 
thinking  for  the  blind  ones  who  had  taken  its  word 
and  risked  their  lives  and  fortunes  in  the  removal 


•In  1902  Canada  began  to  emulate  the  history  of  the  United 
State,  and  planned  for  the  building  of  two  more  transcontinental 
railways.  She  could  inflict  no  greater  blow  to  the  United  States. 
V.  also  Chap.  V,    Vol.  IV;  "The  Pathways  of  the  Future." 


364  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

to  that  x\merica  wliich  had  so  wide  and  various  an 
interpretation.  The  railway  sent  out,  free  and  un- 
solicited, seed  wheat  and  choice  hreeding-stock,  drop- 
ping these  contrihutions  wisel}^  here  and  there,  into 
such  communities  as  most  needed  them.  The  rail- 
way was  explorer,  carrier,  provider,  thinker,  heart, 
soul,  and  intellect  for  this  population  thai  in 
another  generation  was  to  he  American.  No  wonder 
these  folk  stand  and  stare  when  the  railway-train 
goes  by.  It  has  been  Providence  to  them.  It  is  a 
Providence  that  has  given  to  Europe  what  America 
might  have  had. 

To-day  towns  do  not  grow  merely  because  of  their 
location,  and  this  factor  of  location  will  become  less 
and  less  impori;ant  as  the  years  go  by.  St.  Louis  was 
a  city  of  location;  Chicago  is  a  city  of  transportation. 
Chicago  is  situated  upon  the  most  impossible  and 
unlovely  of  all  places  of  human  habitation.  She  is 
simply  a  city  of  transportation,  and  is  no  better  than 
her  rails  and  boats,  though  by  her  rails  and  boats 
she  lives  in  every  Western  state  and  territory.  The 
same  is  true  now  of  St.  Louis  and  the  vast  South- 
west. 

One  railroad  recently  planned  for  a  Western  ex- 
tension, and  laid  out  along  its  lines  the  sites  of 
thirty-eight  new  towns,  each  of  which  was  located 
and  named  before  the  question  of  inhabitants  for  the 


ACROSS  THE  WATERS  365 

towns  was  ever  taken  up.  Another  railway  in  the 
Southwest  has  named  fifty  cities  that  are  yet  to 
huild;  and  still  others  have  scores  of  communities 
that  in  time  are  to  be  the  battle-grounds  of  human 
lives,  the  stages  of  the  human  tragedy  or  comedy. 
The  railways  have  not  only  reached  but  created  prov- 
inces; they  have  not  only  nourished  but  conceived 
comtoiunities.  Out  of  that  cold  upper  land  of  the 
N'orthwest,  which  was  thus  fostered  and  nurtured  into 
strength,  there  came,  in  one  year,  one  hundred  and 
ten  million  bushels  of  wheat  to  feed  the  world,  and 
that  in  a  year  when  the  crop  shortage  was  over  one 
hundred  million  bushels.  This  is  only  a  part  of  the 
output  /)f  that  land,  for  the  railway  showed  these 
fa-rmers  long  ago  that  diversified  farming  was  their 
hope  and  their  salvation. 

Past  one  of  those  forts  which  in  1812  the  United 
States  erected  to  protect  her  fur  traders  and  to  keep 
out  her  covetous  rivals,  there  came  in  the  same  year 
from  the  far  Northwest,  once  home  of  the  buffalo,  the 
Indian,  and  the  scout,  twenty-five  million  two  hun- 
dred fifty-five  thousand  eight  hundred  and  ten  tons 
of  freight,  nearly  all  of  the  long-haul  sort,  and  hence 
to  be  taken  as  showing  in  part  the  product  of  the  far 
Northwest  itself.  Three  transcontinental  roads,  the 
Northern  Pacific,  the  Union  Pacific,  and  the  South- 
em  Pacific,  in  1899  carried  twenty  million  one  hun- 


366  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

dred  forty-six  thousand  four  hundred  and  ten  tons  of 
freight,  with  a  haul  averaging  about  three  hundred 
miles  in  length. 

K'early  a  thousand  millions  of  dollars  is  repre- 
sented in  the  capitalization  of  these  roads — far 
more  than  is  demanded  by  the  free  roadway  of 
the  Great  Lakes,  the  modern  freight  traffic  of 
which  is  really  a  development  subsequent  to  that 
of  the  railway  exploitation  of  the  West.  This  per- 
haps suggests  a  day  when  Chicago  may  come  to  be  as 
closely  connected  with  New  Orleans  as  was  the  latter 
city  with  Kentucky  in  the  day  of  Wilkinson.*  It 
is  impossible  to  study  the  industrial  history  of  the 
West  without  studying  also  that  of  the  South,  for 
though  the  two  sections  are  far  apart  and  utterly  un- 
like, they  yet  have  the  intercurrent  soul  of  twins. 
No  part  of  America  is  less  known  and  more  misun- 

•Engineers  disagree  as  to  the  possibility  of  making  a  ship- 
canal  of  the  great  highway  of  the  Mississippi;  but  engineers 
have  always  disagreed  about  the  doing  of  great  things,  and  then 
have  always  done  them.  It  is  likely  that  the  dream  of  that 
shrewd  merchant-explorer,  Louis  Joliet,  will  eventually  be  realized, 
and  the  Chicago  drainage-canal  will  in  that  case  attain  a  great 
importance. 

Indeed,  inland-water  transportation  may  be  upon  the  eve  of  a 
great  development  Thus,  in  December,  1900,  there  was  organized 
a  canal  company  for  the  purpose  of  navigating  the  Red  River  of 
the  North,  of  improving  the  channel  by  dredging,  putting  in  locks 
and  reservoirs,  to  regulate  that  historic  stream  into  conditions 
virtually  those  of  a  canal.  Another  curious  proposition  to  reach 
Congress  in  the  same  year  was  a  bill  for  the  purpose  of  building 
a  ship-canal  between  Lake  Erie  and  the  Ohio  River,  an  enterprise 
which  would  have  great  significance  in  the  coal  and  iron  trade. 
This  canal  would  follow  the  course  of  La  Salle  on  his  first  journey 


ACROSS  THE  WATERS  367 

derstood  tlian  the  South,  and  surely  it  must  be  one 
of  the  most  cheering  reflections  to  conclude  that 
yearly  the  South  comes  closer  to  the  North,  and  the 
North  to  the  South.  Statesmanship  could  not  in  a 
century  so  fully  have  accomplished  this  great  and 
desirable  result.  The  railroads  are  doing  what  state- 
craft could  not  do. 

It  is  the  part  of  the  great  captains  of  transporta- 
tion to  live  strenuous  lives,  to  work  out  great  prob- 
lems faithfully  and  patiently,  to  accomplish  great  re- 
sults mysteriously,  to  live,  to  die,  and  to  be  forgot- 
ten. The  heroes  of  the  hustings,  the  heroes  of  our 
wars,  are  remembered  and  immortalized.  The  man 
that  makes  possible  their  triumphs  finds  no  record 
on  the  page  of  time.  His  obituary  is  only  the  pass- 
ing chronicle  of  the  daily  press,  feverishly  concerned 
with  what  is  known  as  news. 

To-day  James  F.  Joy,  the  father  of  the  Michigan 
Central  Railroad,  is  little  known  by  the  general  pub- 
lic, though  his  was  a  far  greater  work  than  that  of 

from  the  Great  Lakes— the  old  south-bound  war-trail  of  the  Six 
Nations.  Geography,  of  all  things,  seems  to  repeat  itself.  No  one 
may  tell  what  new  importance  this  canal  proposition  may  attain, 
though  it  may  be  dormant  for  a  time. 

Early  in  the  year  1901  the  leading  journals  of  Germany  were 
discussing  the  prospects  of  a  canal  from  Chicago  to  the  Atlantic 
Ocean,  and  held  the  enterprise  practicable.    . 

As  showing  the  extent  of  water-transportation  on  our  Great 
Lakes,  it  may  be  stated  that  more  tonnage  passes  Sault  Ste.  Marie 
in  seven  months  of  each  year  than  goes  through  the  Suez  Canal 
in  three  years.  The  city  of  Duluth  alone,  at  the  head  of  the 
water-trail,  has  a  tonnage  each  year  of  more  than  11,500,000  tons. 


368  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

seeking  public  office.  John  Murray  Forbes,  father 
of  the  great  Burlington  and  Quincy  system,  is 
a  man  too  much,  forgotten.  As  these  lines 
are  written  comes  the  news  of  the  death  of 
Henry  Villard,  the  man  that  solved  so  many 
problems  for  the  Northern  Pacific.  Dropped  for  the 
time  out  of  sight,  he  will  now  shortly  follow  the  fate 
of  his  compeers,  and  soon  be  dropped  forever.  Will- 
iam Henry  Osbom  died  only  a  few  years  ago,  yet 
there  are  many  who  make  the  winter  trip  to  the  Gulf 
coast  that  do  not  know  who  planned  the  flight  of 
rails  that  runs  from  the  Great  Lakes  to  the  Gulf.  It 
is  a  duty  and  a  pleasure  to  mention  the  names  of  such 
great  and  useful  men,  if  only  to  ask  that  their 
work  be  held  in  understanding  memory. 

Especially  significant  now  is  the  memory  of  Mr. 
Osbom,  and  we  might  well  speak  of  him  as  assistant 
and  coadjutor  of  such  men  as  Lincoln  and  Grant,  and 
the  statesmen  who  since  the  war  have  sought  to  unite 
North  and  South.  As  we  find  that  it  was  the  South 
that  first  marched  westward,  and  a  Southern  man  wh« 
first  planned  a  great  highway  of  iron  into  the  West, 
we  may  state  with  equal  pleasure  and  confidence 
that  it  was  the  East,  and  an  Eastern  man,  that  made 
the  South  a  portion  of  the  West,  and  both  a  part  of 
a  united  America. 

William  H.  Osborn  was  a  native  of  Massachusetts, 


ACROSS  THE  WATERS  369 

and  was  by  birth  of  no  exalted  position  in 
the  world.  His  chief  capital  was  a  clear  brain  and 
an  unclouded  purpose,  which  later  ripened  into  a  far- 
sightedness in  large  affairs  that  has  rarely  been 
equaled  in  the  ranks  of  practical  American  men. 
Sent  to  the  Bast  Indies  as  the  representative  of  a 
Kew  York  firm,  he  got  a  good  insight  into  the  trade 
in  spices,  and  was  successful  in  its  operation.  Later 
he  married  the  second  daughter  of  that  sterling 
American  merchant,  Jonathan  Sturges  of  New  York, 
whose  first  daughter  was  the  first  wife  of  J.  Pierpont 
Morgan.  Mr.  Sturges  was  heavily  interested  in  the 
young  Illinois  Central  Railroad,  the  first  of  the  land- 
grant  railways,  the  original  seven  hundred  and  five 
miles  of  which  were  intended  to  develop  the  agri- 
cultural lands  of  the  great  prairie  state  of  Illinois, 
and  to  bear  the  products  of  that  state  up  to  the 
water-transport  of  the  Great  Lakes,  which  then  car- 
ried most  of  the  long-haul  business  from  the  West 
to  the  East. 

The  original  lines  of  this  road  were  laid  out  in  the 
form  of  a  large  Y,  one  leg  of  which  ran  from  Du- 
buque, Iowa,  southward,  meeting  the  other  leg,  which 
extended  south  from  Chicago.  The  two  legs  of  the 
Y  met  at  what  is  now  Central  City,  and  thence  the 
line  ran  south  to  Cairo.  This  road  was  one  of  the 
earliest  attempts  to  parallel  the  old  water-highways 


370  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

that  had  once  carried  the  freight  of  a  riparian  pop- 
ulation. Its  first  grant  was  made  in  1850,  and  its 
first  train  was  run  in  1855.  During  the  war  this 
line  was  of  much  service  in  transporting  troops  and 
material  to  the  southward. 

Yet,  in  spite  of  its  well-conceived  plan,  and  in 
spite  of  the  natural  wealth  of  the  country  it 
traversed,  the  road  as  a  property  was  a  source 
of  perpetual  anxiety  to  its  shareholders.  It 
needed  a  great  mind  to  straighten  out  its  problems, 
and  Mr.  Sturges  thought  that  his  son-in-law  had  that 
mind.  He  therefore  despatched  Mr.  Osborn  to  Chi- 
cago, and  gave  him  full  charge  of  the  system.  The 
choice  was  a  wise  one.  Mr.  Oshorn  brought  the  prop- 
erty through  the  panic  of  1857,  when  all  securities 
were  falling  in  ruins,  and  weathered  even  an  assign- 
ment, which  was  made  by  the  company  during  his 
absence  in  England.  He  backed  his  faith  in  his 
judgment  by  negotiating  a  personal  loan  of  three 
million  dollars,  out  of  which  he  paid  the  matured 
coupons  that  were  pressing  for  payment.  He  se- 
cured a  new  loan  of  five  million  dollars,  paid  off  all 
the  smaller  debts,  established  the  credit  of  the  com- 
pany, and  set  its  affairs  thenceforth  upon  a  secure 
footing. 

All  these  details  were  such  as  might  perhaps  have 
been  accomplished  by  another.     It  was  not  only  in 


'ACROSS  THE  WATERS  371 

these  executive  matters  that  the  genius  of  this  cap- 
tain evinced  itself.  He  saw  at  once  to  the  mar- 
row of  the  difficulties  that  had  caused  this  embar- 
rassment. There  had  now  been  built  around  the 
foot  of  Lake  Michigan  those  east-and-west  through 
lines  that  killed  the  lake  carriage  just  as  his  own 
road  had  killed  the  river  carriage  on  the  Mississippi 
trail.  These  roads  reached  out  after  their  own  busi- 
ness, and  did  not  depend  upon  the  traffic  the 
north-and-south  line  carried.  It  was  easy  to  foresee 
a  failing  business,  but  not  so  easy  to  name  a  remedy 
for  it.  Mr.  Osbom  found  his  remedy  in  the  idea  of 
a  north-and-south  transcontinental  line.  Between. 
Cairo  and  the  town  of  Jackson,  Tennessee,  there  was 
a  gap  over  which  no  railroad  passed,  though  from 
Jackson  as  far  south  as  New  Orleans  there  ran  the 
rambling  lines  of  a  system  controlled  by  H.  S.  Mc- 
Comb,  of  Credit  Mobilier  fame.  Mr.  Osbom  secured 
the  immature  Southern  roads,  built  the  connection 
from  Cairo  to  Jackson,  and  in  1873  had  a  completed 
line  from  the  Lakes  to  the  Gulf. 

It  all  sounds  easy,  but  it  took  one  man's  brain  and 
one  man's  life  to  do  it.  The  story  of  the  road  and  of 
the  man  that  made  it  is  not  yet  told,  but  it  will  be 
written  in  the  development  of  one  of  the  richest  sec- 
tions of  America.  It  is  writing  daily  in  the  trains 
that  come  from  North   to    South,    from    South   to 


373  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

Nortli,  agencies  that  daily  break  down  and  pass 
througli  any  sectional  barrier  and  bring  about  the 
better  understanding  which  makes  kin  one  with  the 
other  the  sons  of  the  old  riflemen  and  the  old  axmen 
who  built  the  West 

Thus  are  the  trails  of  the  two  forever  interwoven. 
Beside  this  trail  of  commerce  runs  the  old  trail  of 
the  Mississippi,  whose  tawny  flood  still  carries  its 
burden  of  adventure  and  romance.  Eobertson, 
Thomas,  Whitney,  Osbom, — these  are  the  names  of  a 
few  of  the  prophets,  forgotten  men  of  the  early  and 
the  modern  days,  who  blazed  the  intercurrent  trails 
where  now  march  the  feet  of  those  living  under  a 
complex  civilization. 

From  these  crude  studies  of  early  Western  history 
we  may  gather  one  very  significant  fact,  which  will 
mean  more  a  hundred  years  from'  now  than  it  does 
to-day.  It  is  that  America  got  her  territory  first,  and 
then  her  transportation  and  her  population.  She 
bought  on  a  rising  market,  and  her  purchase  was  of 
territory,  land,  the  only  thing  on  earth  that  can  not 
be  increased  or  multiplied.  Moreover,  her  land  was 
such  as  the  earth  has  never  duplicated  and  can  never 
duplicate.  The  magnificent  American  West  was  a 
realm  unrivaled,  and  it  was  originally  settled  by  men 
who  had  the  most  priceless  of  all  possessions,  a  splen- 
did ancestry.    Providence  held  back  the  wheels  for 


ACROSS  THE  WATERS  373 

a  hiinclrecl  years  while  the  Western  character  was 
forming. 

Let  US,  even  though  by  dint  of  effort,  fling  away 
the  personal  plaint.  It  is  un-American  to  snivel,  and 
as  the  old-time  Western  men  would  not  have  done 
so,  neither  shall  we.  The  West  is  not  dead.  It  is 
immortal.  We  have  come  upon  a  century  of  force. 
The  conflict  is  to  be  the  bitterest  the  world  has  ever 
known;  not  the  conflict  of  man  with  beast,  or  with 
savage  nature,  but  the  conflict  of  masses  of  men, 
masses  of  things,  one  combination  against  another, 
one  wedge  of  impact,  head  on,  against  another.  It  is 
too  late  to  call  out  for  an  America  like  that  of 
Washington  or  Jefferson;  too  late  to  ask  for  a  prac- 
tical Monroe  doctrine;  too  late  to  speak  of  policies 
or  politics  gone  by. 

With  Europe  in  fear  of  our  Western  products, 
and  yet  dependent  upon  those  products;  with 
America  coming  each  day,  by  causes  ''^prov- 
idential or  evolutionary,"  into  the  plans  of  the 
world,  of  what  possible  avail  is  it  to  cry  out  for  a 
West  or  for  an  America  that  is  gone  forever?  Call 
back  the  armies  if  you  wish,  but  you  can  never  call 
back  the  wheels.  The  pathway  points  now  not  out 
into  the  West,  but  out  into  the  world.  Never  doubt 
that  the  sons  of  the  West,  sons  of  this  Anak,  sons 
whose  fathers  are  in  Valhalla  to-day,  will  foUow  that 


374  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

road  as  far  and  as  fearlessly  as  they  did  the  path 
across  the  continent.  In  the  veins  of  these  men  runs 
the  riot  unconquerable,  the  distillation  of  the  skies 
and  winds.  Their  feet  march  now  to  the  rhythm  of 
phantom  footfalls,  those  of  the  men  that  marched 
before  from  home  out  into  the  perilous  unknown. 
Black  men,  yellow  men,  peasant  men — ^all  these  must 
take  their  chances.  There  are  no  longer  any  vacant 
lands.  Europe,  which  sent  to  the  West  some  of  its 
best  and  its  poorest  population,  will  have  more  to 
fear  at  the  hands  of  the  West  than  China  has  to 
dread  to-day.  Europe  has  to  combat  not  only  the 
West,  but  all  the  heredity  of  the  West 

This,  then,  is  where  the  eagle-faced  pioneers  of 
America  will  find  their  last  trail.  This  is  how  the 
king  will  at  last  come  again  into  his  own.  Peoples 
may  pass  away,  monarchies  may  fall,  but  above  them 
there  will  stand  the  only  aristocracy  fit  to  survive; 
not  a  false  democracy  that  nominates  all  men  as 
equal,  but  the  aristocracy  of  survival.  You  may 
abolish  many  things,  and  in  the  future  enact  many 
things  of  which  we  of  to-day  may  not  guess ;  but  never 
shall  there  utterly  perish  the  strong  blood  that  got  its 
survival  by  fitness,  and  its  education  by  continuous 
conflict  with  mighty  things.  The  largest,  the  most 
compact,  and  the  most  closely  knit  Caucasian  popula- 
tion of  the  world  to-dav,  is  that  of  America,  and  to- 


ACEOSS  THE  WATEKS  376 

day  America  is  potentially  the  most  powerful  of  all 
the  world-powers.  Why?  Because  her  unit  of  pop- 
ulation is  superior.  The  reason  for  that  you  may 
find  yourself  if  you  care  to  look  into  the  great  move- 
ments of  the  wesl^-bound  population  of  America. 

As  to  the  future  steps  in  the  development  of  the 
AVest,  we  may  perhaps  be  indulged  in  a  hazard  of 
opinion,  as  our  fathers  were  before  us.  It  would  seem 
sure  that  every  inch  of  our  agricultural  lands  must 
come  under  the  plow  of  Belgium,  and  be  tilled  inch 
by  inch.  The  vast  Delta  of  the  Mississippi,  from 
Memphis  south,  the  richest  soil  the  world  ever  saw, 
will  be  a  continuous  garden,  supporting  a  great  pop- 
ulation of  its  own,  and  feeding  thousands  in  the 
cities,  in  full  verification  of  the  wisdom  of  the  man 
who  foresaw  that  the  South  must  be  joined  to  the 
North,  even  as  the  West  to  the  East.  Perhaps  some 
of  the  more  barren  steppe  country  of  the  West  will 
ultimately  he  abandoned  in  spite  of  scientific  irriga- 
tion, just  as  some  of  the  slashed-off  timber-lands  of 
Michigan,  Wisconsin  and  Minnesota  are  now  being 
abandoned,  in  sequel  to  the  ruinous  American  lum- 
bering operations.* 

♦The  population  of  Michigan  in  the  decade  1890-1900  drifted 
rapidly  toward  the  cities.  Yet  the  Michigan  railroads  are  bravely 
trying  to  solve  the  problem  of  building  up  a  population  on  the 
country  desolated  by  the  lumbermen,  and  with  great  success  are 
developing  resources  in  agriculture  and  manufactures  which  for 
a  long  time  lay  unsuspected. 


376  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

In  the  great  river  valleys  there  will  be  an  enormous 
thickening  of  the  population;  so  that  it  may  yet 
be  many  years  before  the  center  of  popula- 
tion, which  in  1900  was  near  the  little  town  of 
Columbus,  Indiana,  shall  have  passed  the  Mississippi 
Eiver  in  its  west-bound  course.*  We  have  yet  to 
learn  to  save  our  potato-peelings.  We  are  yet  to  go 
more  and  more  under  task-masters,  are  to  learn  more 
and  more  the  value  of  the  penny,  that  coin  once  so 
bitterly  scorned  in  all  the  West.  We  are  to  work  out 
the  problems  bequeathed  humanity  with  the  passing 
years ;  and  in  the  end  we  are  to  ask,  as  we  ask  to-day, 
that  unanswered  question.  Why?  Policies  and  politics 
can  not  change  these  things.  The  wheels  have  run 
too  far.    Let  fall  the  little  words  of  our  talking  men; 


*In  this  connection  the  census  map  offers  an  unfailing  interest. 
Investigation  shows  that  our  star,  denoting  the  center  of  popula- 
tion, has  traveled  in  all  only  525  miles  since  1790,  the  greatest 
"West-bound  gains  being  in  the  decade  1850-60,  81  miles.  At  no 
time  has  the  center  of  population  moved  back  toward  the  East, 
though  it  is  nearer  to  doing  so  now  than  ever  before— proof  that 
the  history  of  America  has  been  but  the  history  of  a  West,  and 
also  proof  that  that  wayward  West  may  soon  bend  its  footsteps 
homeward  after  a  century  of  adventure.  The  record  of  the  move- 
ment of  the  population  center  is  as  follows: 

1790,  23  miles  east  of  Baltimore,  Maryland;  1800,  18  miles  west 
of  Baltimore,  Maryland ;  1810,  40  miles  northwest  by  west  of  Wash- 
ington, D.  C;  1820,  16  miles  north  of  Woodstock,  Virginia;  1830, 
19  miles  west-southwest  of  Moorefield,  West  Virginia;  1840,  16 
miles  south  of  Clarksburg,  West  Virginia;  1850,  23  miles  southeast 
of  Parkersburg,  West  Virginia;  1860,  20  miles  south  of  Chillicothe, 
Ohio;  1870,  48  miles  east  by  north  of  Cincinnati,  Ohio;  1880,  8 
miles  west  by  south  of  Cincinnati,  Ohio;  1890,  20  miles  east  of 
vColumbus,  Indiana;    1900,  7  miles  north  of  Columbus,  Indiana. 


ACROSS  THE  WATEKS  377 

let  wave  the  tiny  swords  of  those  who  are  called  our 
warriors ;  and  let  the  writers  rage.  Back  and  beyond 
their  trivial  and  transient  deeds  runs  the  broad, 
somber  flood  of  fate.  Humanity,  not  political  di- 
visions, is  the  concern  of  time.  The  individual  yields 
to  the  section,  the  section  to  the  nation,  the  nation 
to  the  worid,  the  worid  to  the  plans  of  fate,  of 
Providence 

There  is  another,  a  lighter  and  more  cheerful  side 
to  the  conclusdons  that  we  may  draw  from  our 
study  of  the  way  in  which  the  West  was  made — ^the 
side  that  has  to  do  with  the  growth  of  the  newer 
pori;ions  of  this  country  in  all  the  liberal  ari;s,  in  that 
noble  flowering  of  the  human  imagination,  which  is 
most  naturally  to  be  expected  of  an  environment  of 
ease  and  a  time  of  leisure.  Art  rests  ever  upon  the 
material,  the  imagination  dates  ever  back  to  actual 
deeds.  The  gentler  days  of  the  West  are  no  better 
than  its  ruder  times,  but  the  one  is  as  good  as  the 
other,  since  each  came  in  its  proper  period.  It  was 
the  railway  that  developed  the  West  in  artistic 
things  as  well  as  in  material  things.  It  was  as  long 
ago  as  1870  that  a  Western  man.  Justice  Paine  of 
the  Wisconsin  Supreme  Court,  found  occasion  to 
epeak  of  the  vast  influence  of  these  civilizing  agen- 
cies.   He  said: 

**They  have  done  more  to  develop  the  wealth  and 


378  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

resources,  to  stimulate  the  industry,  reward  the  la- 
bor, and  promote  the  general  comfort  and  prosperity 
of  the  country  than  any  other,  perhaps  than  all 
other  mere  physical  causes  combined.  There  is 
probably  not  a  man,  woman  or  child  whose  interest 
or  comfort  has  not  been  in  some  degree  subserved  by 
them.  They  bring  to  our  doors  the  productions  of 
the  earth.  They  enable  us  to  anticipate  and  pro- 
tract the  seasons.  They  enable  the  inhabitants  of 
each  clime  to  enjoy  the  pleasures  and  luxuries  of  all. 
They  scatter  the  productions  of  the  press  and  of 
literature  broadcast  through  the  country  with  amaz- 
ing rapidity.  There  is  scarcely  a  want,  wish,  or 
aspiration  of  the  human  heart  that  they  do  not  in 
some  measure  help  to  gratify.  They  promote  the 
pleasures  of  social  life  and  of  friendship;  they  bring 
the  skilled  physician  swiftly  from  a  distance  to  attend 
the  sick  and  the  wounded,  and  enable  the  absent 
friend  to  be  present  at  the  bedside  of  the  dying. 
They  have  more  than  realized  the  fabulous  concep- 
tion of  the  Eastern  imagination,  which  pictured  the 
genii  as  transporting  inhabited  palaces  through  the 
air.  They  take  a  train  of  inhabited  palaces  from 
the  Atlantic  coast,  and  with  marvelous  swiftness  de- 
posit it  on  the  shores  that  are  washed  by  the  Pacific 
sea.  In  war  they  transport  the  armies  and  supplies 
of  the  government  with  the  greatest  celerity,  and 


ACEOSS  THE  WATERS  379 

carry  forward,  as  it  were  on  the  wings  of  the  wind, 
relief  and  comfort  to  those  who  are  stretched  bleed- 
ing and  wounded  on  the  field  of  battle/' 

He  has  not  read  well  the  history  of  his  country, 
has  not  learned  the  intricate  web  of  the  commercial 
system  of  to-day,  has  surely  not  studied  the  develop- 
ments of  the  third  age  of  American  transportation, 
who  can  believe  that  there  exists  any  longer  any  con- 
siderable difference  between  the  most  widely  sepa- 
rated parts  of  America  in  matters  of  the  gentler  life. 
The  publisher  of  a  noble  periodical  controls  an 
agency  the  influence  of  which  is  as  valuable  and  as 
much  desired  in  the  West  as  in  the  East,  and  which 
is  felt  as  quickly  and  as  sensitively  in  the  one  region 
as  the  other.  The  art  and  literature  of  the  time 
belong  to  the  West  as  much  as  to  the  East,  and  in  its 
due  time  the  West  will  produce  as  well  as  consume 
in  the  matters  of  art  and  literature.  There  were 
Western  artists.  Western  painters.  Western  sculptors 
on  the  plains  before  the  buffalo  were  gone. 

It  is  a  matxer  of  wonder  that  any  American  litera- 
ture could  ever  speak  of  the  American  West  in  any- 
thing but  terms  of  pride  and  honor.  There  is  a  cer- 
tain literature,  color-crammed,  superficial,  and  tran- 
sient, because  wrong,  that  affects  to  believe  that 
there  is  still  a  West  that  is  a  land  of  crude  souls 
exclusively  and  of  little  hope  for  a  hereafter.    If  the 


380  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

good  folk  who  so  believe  lack  the  great  privilege  of 
actual  American  travel,  they  have  at  least  left  for 
them  the  resources  of  an  American  railroad  map. 
Let  them  study;  and  even  if  they  study  no  deeper 
than  the  map,  they  must  come  to  see  that  the  West 
is  no  more  as  once  it  was. 

Changed  unspeakably  and  utterly,  the  old  West 
lies  in  ruins.  To  pick  about  among  those  ruins  may, 
indeed,  be  to  find  here  and  there  a  bit  of  local  color; 
but  were  it  not  better  to  reflect  that  this  color  may 
be  only  the  broken  bits  of  a  cathedral  pane?  Ke- 
store  that  cathedral,  in  recollection,  in  imagination 
at  least,  if  it  be  within  the  skill  of  art  or  literature  to 
do  so.  Kestore  it,  and  write  upon  its  arch  the 
thought  that  history  may  be  more  than  a  mere  re- 
cital of  wars  and  religions;  that  the  destruction  of 
human  life  may  be  nationally  not  so  great  as  the  de- 
velopment of  human  character.  Give  the  men  of  the 
old  West,  parents  of  the  men  of  the  new  West,  this 
epitaph:  They  had  character.  Let  the  heroes  have 
place  of  honor  in  their  own  cathedral;  and  so 
may  the  Western  earth  lie  light  above  them,  and 
the  Western  skies  smile  over  them  rememberingly. 


ACEOSS   THE   PACIFIC 

CHAPTEE  I 

THE  lEON"   TKAILS 

At  the  time  of  the  discovery  of  gold  in  Oalifomia,. 
there  had  been  built  up  a  splendid  Western  popula- 
tion, hardy,  self-confident,  able  to  shift  for  itself, 
wholly  distinct  from  that  population  that  it  had  for- 
a  generation  left  behind  at  the  old  starting  places  of 
the  trails.  These  trails  across  the  continent,  waver- 
ing, tortuous,  yet  practicable,  had  been  fully  estab- 
lished. So  far  as  might  be  within  the  horizon  of 
those  days,  all  was  now  ready  for  the  epoch-making 
event  that  was  to  change  all  the  methods  of  Amer- 
ica, that  was  to  make  Westerners  by  wholesale  and 
to  draw  them  swiftly  from  every  comer  of  the 
earth. 

The  great  state  of  California  alone  was  cause 
and  sufficient  reason  for  the  swift  development  of 
the  remoter  American  West.  There  can  not  be  de- 
nied the  tremendous  effect  produced  by  the  sudden 

growth  of  California,   coming  as  it  did  hard  on 

381 


382  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

the  time  of  the  annexation  of  Texas  and  the  widen- 
ing of  "our  national  territory  in  the  far  Southwest. 
As  to  the  discovery  of  gold  and  the  swift  growth  of 
California  being  unmixed  benefits,  there  may 
exist  at  this  later  day  something  of  a  sober  doubt. 

California  marked  the  beginning  of  the  feverish, 
insane,  excitable  type  of  American,  who  wishes  to 
do  everything  at  once — and  does  it!  Without  Cali- 
fornia and  the  Civil  War  we  should  to-day  still  be 
settling  the  West.  With  California  we  are  settling 
the  islands  of  the  Orient.  The  high-geared  life  of 
to-day  is  part  of  the  corollary  of  washing  a  year's 
income  out  of  the  ground  in  an  hour's  work,  of 
crossing  the  continent  in  a  week  instead  of  a  season, 
of  tearing  down  mountains  by  machinery  instead  of 
building  up  homesteads  deliberately.  Stimulation 
and  destruction  do  not  go  so  far  apart.  California 
gave  to  the  world  the  spectacle  of  a  nation  drunk 
with  energy,  using  with  maddened  zeal  for  a  time 
powers  made  three-fold,  employing  an  imagination 
under  whose  concept  naught  under  Heaven  seemed 
impossible — or  was  impossible! 

This  was  revolution.  There  was  a  demand  for 
revolution  of  an  even  pace  in  all  lines  of  al- 
lied industry.  It  was  time  for  the  railroad, 
and  the  railroad  must  now  perforce  come 
:swiftly.         We  built     better     steamships     to     get 


THE  IRON  TRAILS  383 

out  into  our  new,  feverish,  golden  West.  TVe  used 
the  old  trails,  but  they  would  no  longer  serve.  We 
employed  the  old  mountain  passes,  the  old  grazing 
and  watering  places,  but  neither  would  these  serve. 
^o  time  now  for  hoof  or  wheel,  or  for  the  way  of 
the  ship  upon  the  sea!  No  time  now  for  the  way- 
side ranches  along  the  Platte,  for  the  old  posts  of 
Laramie  and  Bridger  and  Hall!  The  golden  coun- 
try clamored  all  too  strongly.  Therefore,  with  a 
leap,  the  old  trails  straightened  out  and  shortened. 
New  passes  over  the  Great  Divide  were  found.  The 
long  thin  line  of  rails  connected  the  East  with  a 
West  now  swiftly  grown  mightier  than  itself.  All 
American  morals  and  manners  underwent  swift  re- 
construction. The  United  States,  plus  California, 
plus  the  Western  railways,  became  a  different  na- 
tion. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  take  up  in  detail  the  chron- 
ological or  geographical  study  of  the  building 
of  the  transcontinental  railways.  They  have  done 
their  work.  The  commercial  history  of  Amer- 
ica is  sufficiently  well  written  to-day  on  the  face 
of  every  country^  of  the  globe.  We  have  built  our 
own  railroads,  and  to-day  we  build  and  sell  rail- 
roads and  equipment  for  the  Himalayas  and  the 
Sudan.  We  shall  build  the  railroads  that  will 
make  Africa  another  America.     We  shall  build  the 


§84  THiE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

railroads  that  will  at  length  bring  the  Anglo-Saxon 
face  to  face  with  the  Slav,  in  that  struggle  that  shall 
pit  the  American  West  against  the  Eussian  East. 

The  West  of  the  midway  district  between  the  Mis- 
souri and  Pacific  was  largely  settled  by  reflex.  The 
mines  of  California  spilled  back  men,  great,  splen- 
did men,  to  the  eastward  again,  to  exploit  all  those 
ranges  of  the  Eockies  whose  wealth  the  trappers  had 
not  suspected.  Montana,  Idaho,  Colorado,  Nevada 
— all  these  might  be  called  a  part  of  the  scheme  of 
California.  New  and  splendid  empires  were  found- 
ed, new  standards  of  civilization  were  erected  in  the 
recent  wilderness.  The  grand  and  alluring  story  of 
the  West  went  on  apace  for  yet  a  little  time. 

But  these  times  were  not  to  endure.  There  came 
swiftly  the  Western  rush  of  population,  which  swept 
off  the  map  the  free  lands  of  all  our  Western  empire. 
The  vast  American  public,  mad  with  the  lust  of  land, 
raped  the  Indian  reservations  from  those  that  had 
frail  title  given  them  in  the  honor  of  a  great  nation; 
so  that  thus  one  more  bar  was  broken  between  the 
East  and  the  West.  Home-building,  farm-making 
man  came  close  on  the  heels  of  trapper  and  trader 
and  nomad  cattle  driver.  The  hordes  of  the  land 
seekers  held  their  lotteries  even  in  the  desert  once 
dreaded  by  the  travelers  of  the  old  Santa  Fe  trail. 
Incipient  cities  were  builded  in  that  waterless  waste 


THE  IRON"  TRAILS  385 

where  Jedediah  Smith,  the  first  transcontinental 
traveler,  lost  his  life  in  mid-continent.  Never  a  bit 
of  open  land  was  left  in  all  the  West;  or  if  there 
were  such  land  remaining,  it  was  of  a  quality  that 
would  once  have  been  viewed  with  contempt. 

The  story  of  the  swift  changes  wrought  by  the 
iron  trails  is  such  as  not  to  afford  complete  satis- 
faction in  the  contemplation;  yet  we  may  calmly  re- 
view the  different  stages  of  that  story.  First  we 
had  the  day  of  competitive  railway  building,  when 
there  were  not  enough  railroads  for  the  demands  of 
a  vast  and  unsettled  region  whose  resources  ap- 
pealed to  a  population.  Then  we  came  rapidly  to 
the  time  of  too  many  railroads;  of  attempts  to  adjust 
an  unprofitable  competition;  of  combinations,  of 
arrangements,  agreements,  mergers;  and  of  popular 
and  governmental  action  upon  such  mergers.  To-day 
all  America  is  districted  and  divided  among  a 
few  great  railway  systems.  Once  we  were  better 
than  our  transportation;  now  we  are  not  so  good. 
Once  we  depended  upon  it;  now  it  rules  us  almost 
without  argument.  The  swiftness  with  which  these 
tremendous  changes  have  been  brought  about  fur- 
nishes one  of  the  most  remarkable  phenomena  re- 
corded in  the  history  of  the  world. 

Recently  there  was  erected  at  Doylestown,  Pennsyl- 
vania, a  monument  to  a  forgotten  man,  John  Fitdh, 


386  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

who  in  the  year  1785  was  known  as  one  curious  in  ex- 
periments with  steam  as  a  motive  power.  Fitch  built 
a  steamboat,  and  had  visions  of  many  things  in  the 
way  of  steam  locomotion.  The  life  of  this  unknown 
man  marks  the  extent  of  our  backward  vision  in 
these  matters;  yet  Fitch  lived  little  more  than  a 
century  ago.  Indeed,  the  growth  of  the  railroads 
of  America  has  taken  place  in  less  than  three-quar- 
ters of  a  century.  And  yet  to-day  we  have  more 
than  two  hundred  thousand  miles  of  railway,  and  as 
each  day  rolls  by,  we  build  from  ten  to  twenty-jB.ve 
miles  more.  Eailroading  is  a  profession  perfected  in 
the  hard  evolution  of  American  necessity.  Our  first 
railways  were  but  attempts,  guesses,  desires,  hopes, 
purely  local  propositions  and  not  always  well  con- 
ceived as  such.  Yet  they  grew  and  multiplied,  and 
presently,  before  we  had  time  to  think,  they  had 
multiplied  over  much.  Then  came  the  days  of  the 
railroad  receiver.  After  the  receiver  tliere  came  the 
combiner.  This  man,  in  these  bubble  days  of  so- 
called  prosperity,  for  a  time  undertakes  to  do  what 
competition  was  not  able  to  do.  It  is  only  for  a  time 
that  any  man  or  combination  of  men  can  escape  the 
workings  of  the  great  natural  law  of  competition. 
Neither  monopolies  nor  trades-unions,  neither  the 
"trust"  in  capital  nor  the  "trust"  in  labor  can  for- 


THE  II10:N"  TKAILS  387 

ever  evade  it.  In  time  there  will  again  be  change; 
and  meantime,  ruin. 

To-day  there  are  five  great  centralizations  or  com- 
binations of  capital  that  control  the  railway  sitna/- 
tion  in  America.  In  these  swift  times  of  change  these 
arrangements  may  not  long  remain  permanent,  and! 
it  is  bootless  to  mention  them  specifically.  The  build- 
ing of  these  thousands  of  miles  of  railway  and  the 
assembling  of  them  together  under  industrial  truce 
has  been  the  product  of  a  giant  game  in  commence,  a 
commerce  not  to  be  confined  wholly  by  the  limits  of 
this  continent.  The  great  ships  built  for  the  Orient 
are  now  an  old  story,  an  accepted  enterprise  that 
spells  Europe  on  the  one  hand  and  Asia  on 
the  other. 

As  for  our  own  marches,  Alaska  is  to  repeat  at 
least  in  part  the  story  of  California.  The  Yukon 
and  White  Pass  Eailway  is  but  a  hint,  a  be- 
ginning. It  is  now  upon  the  question  of  a  railway 
from  Circle  City  in  Alaska  to  the  Bering  Sea,  to 
connect  there  with  a  railway  which  shall  eventually 
tap  both  China  and  Siberia!  It  is  entirely  within 
possibility  that  we  shall  in  time  see  a  continuous 
railway  transportation  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  far- 
off  straits  that  separate  this  country  from  Asia. 
Scientists  tell  us  that  over  these  straits  there  per- 
haps came  once  the  ancestors  of  the  aboriginal  pop- 


388  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

ulation  of  this  continent.  This  population  we 
have  destroyed.  There  will  also  be  destroyed  all 
those  nomad  tribes  of  northeastern  Asia  that  seem 
not  useful  in  this  great  scheme  which  we  call  civil- 
ization. Alaska  was  long  thought  uninviting;  yet 
railroad  building  there  is  feasible,  and  Alaska  is 
feasible  as  residence  for  man;  and  railroad  man  is 
concerned  with  every  comer  of  this  globe  that  can 
serve  as  residence  for  human  beings. 

In  the  course  of  an  address  during  the  year  1901, 
a  modern  railway  man*  spoke  in  part  as  follows: 
*^The  twentieth  century  has  been  ushered  into  exist- 
ence, and  at  its  very  dawn  we  find  a  struggle,  not 
for  the  acquisition  of  new  territory,  not  for  the 
subjection  of  foreign  countries,  not  a  crusade  to 
introduce  a  new  and  better  religion,  but  a  struggle 
between  the  great  nations  of  the  earth  for  suprem- 
acy in  industrial  pursuits  and  to  supply  the  mar- 
kets of  the  world.  The  nineteenth  century  has  fre- 
quently been  referred  to  as  the  Age  of  Transporta- 
tion. Distribution  is  the  handmaid  of  production. 
Bacon  said:  ^There  are  three  things  that  make  a 
country  great:  fertile  fields,  busy  workshops,  easy 
conveyance  for  men  and  goods  from  place  to  place.' 
The  evolution  that  has  taken  place  in  the  transpor- 
tation of  this  country  during  the  nineteenth  century 

•Mr.  Paul  Morton,  of  the  Santa  F6  Railroad. 


THE  IRON  TRAILS  389 

Las  "been  remarkable  and  unparalleled  in  the  history 
of  man.  In  the  year  1800  it  cost  one  hundred  dol- 
lars to  move  a  ton  of  wheat  from  Buffalo  to  New 
York.  The  regular  rate  is  now  a  dollar  and  a  half 
per  ton,  and  it  has  been  carried  for  a  dollar.  One 
hundred  years  ago  we  paid  twenty-five  cents  per  mile, 
traveling  by  stage-coach,  without  baggage;  now  we 
carry  home-seekers  from  the  East  into  California 
for  approximately  one-twentieth  of  the  old  rate. 

"Our  American  railroads  were,  not  a  very  long 
time  since,  owned  largely  outside  the  United  States, 
but  during  the  world's  panic  that  occurred  in  1893, 
our  British,  German  and  Dutch  friends  discovered 
the  necessity  of  selling  something,  and  the  only 
things  in  their  strong  boxes  that  they  could  sell 
without  too  much  sacrifice  were  their  American  se- 
curities. They  dumped  them  on  the  American 
market;  and,  notwithstanding  the  financial  strain 
and  the  depression  from  which  we  were  suffering, 
our  American  financiers  mustered  pluck,  courage 
and  money  enough  to  buy  them.  They  were  bought 
at  bargain  prices.  The  advance  in  them  has  been 
stupendous,  but  it  is  worth  a  great  deal  to  feel  that 
we  are  not  only  blessed  with  the  most  improved  and 
cheapest  transportation  in  the  world,  but  that  our 
railroads  are  owned  by  our  own  people.  The  value 
of  the  railroads  of  the  United  States  amounts  to 


390  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

over  one-fifth  of  tiie  total  wealth  of  the  country." 
Another  master  in  transportation,*  in  a  public 
address  delivered  in  1902,  gave  yet  further  details 
in  the  vivid  story  of  the  extension  of  the  iron  trails 
of  America:  '^Vhile  the  railroads  may  have  to  an- 
swer for  many  mistakes  of  judgment  or  of  intent/' 
said  he,  "on  the  whole  the  result  has  been  to  create 
the  most  effective,  useful,  and  by  far  the  cheapest 
system  of  land  transportation  in  the  world.  In 
England  the  average  amount  paid  by  the  shipper 
for  moving  a  ton  of  freight  one  hundred  miles  is 
two  dollars  and  thirty-five  cents ;  in  France,  two  dol- 
lars and  ten  cents;  in  Austria,  a  dollar  and  ninety 
cents;  in  Germany,  where  most  of  the  railroads  are 
owned  and  operated  by  the  government,  a  dollar  and 
eighty-four  cents;  in  Eussiai,  also  under  government 
ownership,  where  the  shipments  are  carried  under 
conditions  more  nearly  similar  to  our  own  than  any 
other  country  as  respects  long  haul,  a  dollar  and 
seventy  cents.  In  the  United  States  the  average  cost 
is  seventy-three  cents,  or  less  than  forty  per  cent,  of 
the  average  cost  in  Europe." 

From  the  above  comparisons  this  captain  of  trans- 
portation concludes  that  the  railroad  industries  of 
this  country  are  in  a  flourishing  condition  and  thot 
they  should  not  be  interfered  with.     Yet  he  cop.- 


*Mr.  James  J.  Hill,  of  the  Great  Northern  Railroad. 


THE  IRON  TRAILS  391 

eludes  Ms  comment  with  words  that  contain  a 
corollary  inconsistent  with  his  earlier  attitude,  as 
we  miay  later  have  occasion  to  note.  He  says:  "For 
the  first  time  in  the  history  of  this  countr}'  thou- 
sands of  our  farmers  are  seeking  "homes  in  the  Cana- 
dian Northwest,  owing  to  the  cheap  lands  of!ered  in 
that  country,  and  to  the  difficulty  of  securing  such 
lands  in  the  United  States."  Earlier  in  the  same 
address  there  is  this  epigrammatic  statement:  ^^Land 
without  population  is  a  wilderness;  population  with- 
out land  is  a  mob."  If  our  Western  Americans  are 
leaving  the  flag  of  a  republican  government  to  seek 
land  elsewhere,  is  not  the  inference  fair  that  they 
do  so  because  they  have  become  a  population  with- 
out land?  If  this  be  true,  assuredly  it  is  the  work 
of  the  iron  trails. 

We  have  an  overgrowth,  or,  rather,  too  sudden 
and  rank  a  growth,  of  transportation  in  America.  It 
is  attended  with  sudden  changes,  attended  also  with 
a  certain  weediness  and  inmaturity,  which  we  should 
be  entitled  to  call  un-American  and  undesirable, 
even  were  it  not  for  the  graver  features  that  amount 
to  revolutionary  changes  and  to  national^  menaces. 
Borne  aloft  upon  a  great  wave  of  commercial  pros- 
perit}^,  the  American  people  is  at  the  present  time 
taking  itself  with  entire  seriousness  as  the  greatest 
nation  of  the  world.     Its  rapid  industrial  expansior* 


392  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

has  indeed  been  cause  for  marvel  in  the  mind  of  all 
the  world.  There  is  a  certain  national  comfort  in 
these  reflections,  without  doubt,  and  solace  in  the 
almost  incomprehensible  totals  of  the  figures  on 
which  such  assertions  are  grounded.  Therefore  it 
must  come  almost  with  ill  grace  to  offer  in  these 
days  of  jubilation  any  word  that  might  seem  to 
indicate  that  perhaps,  in  spite  of  all  this  superficial 
prosperity,  all  may  not  be  well  with  America  as  a 
nation,  that  all  is  not  really  well  with  our  American 
man. 

We  are  told  that  these  are  good  times,  the  best 
we  ever  knew.  It  is  triumphantly  announced  to  us 
that  we  have  in  one  year  invested  nearly  seventy 
millions  of  dollars  in  foreign  securities,  largely  in 
railroad  bonds  of  Russia,  in  German  Treasury  bills, 
and  English  Exchequer  loans.  This  is  very  good; 
it  sounds  well.  As  an  offset  to  it  one  should  apolo- 
gize for  offering  the  simple  but  multifold  statements 
from  the  columns  of  the  daily  press  bearing  upon 
the  greater  cost  of  living  in  Western  states.  It  is 
seven  per  cent,  greater,  says  one  dealer  in  statistics. 
It  is  twenty-five  per  cent,  greater  than  it  ever  was, 
says  another.  The  housewives  of  America,  the  best  of 
all  statisticians,  say  that  in  1902  it  cost  thirty-three 
per  cent,  more  to  live  than  it  did  in  1899.  These  prices 
.of  bare  commodities  in  these  days  of  super-excellent 


THE  IRON  TRAILS  393 

transportation  go  well  toward  comparing  with  those 
we  have  shown  as  existing  in  the  far-off  moun- 
tain communities  in  the  days  of  pack-horse  and  ox- 
team  transportation.  If  this  he  so,  is  all  well  with 
America?  The  prices  are  the  results  of  combina- 
tions and  monopolies.  The  monopolies  are  based 
largely  on  non-competitive  transportation.  The 
iron  trails  are  built  over  the  hearthfires  of  America. 
The  iron  trails  must  do  otherwise  than  thus. 

We  are  informed  that  during  the  last  year  the 
balance  of  trade  in  favor  of  the  United  States  was 
something  like  seven  hundred  millions  of  dollars. 
^Tigures  up  to  March  twenty-first  (1902),  just  fin- 
ished/' says  a  careful  report,  "are  so  stupendous  as 
to  be  staggering.  *  *  *  Nations  have  generally 
measured  their  prosperity  by  their  foreign  trade." 

There  might  perhaps  be  other  ways  of  measuring 
that  prosperity.  As  against  the  above  imposing  ag- 
gregation of  figures,  I  offer  a  simple  newspaper  para- 
graph printed  in  1902,  which  sounds  like  Kaskaskia, 
or  Alder  Gulch,  or  the  end  of  the  Santa  Fe  Trail: 
"Potatoes  have  been  selling  for  a  dollar  and  seventy- 
five  cents  a  bushel  in  Chicago  this  week,"  says  the 
item.  "A  year  ago  the  price  was  about  forty  cents. 
This  enormous  advance,  coupled  with  the  correspond- 
ing rise  in  the  prices  of  nearly  all  vegetables,  presents 
a  serious  economic  problem  for  large  families  with 


394  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

small  incomes."  The  same  paper  goes  on  to  say :  "The 
greatest  sufferers  from  the  high  price  of  potatoes  are 
the  small  wage-earners.  They  have  learned  to  depend 
npon  potatoes  almost  as  mnch  as  upon  bread.  Yet,  at 
a  dollar  and  seventy-five  cents  a  bushel;,  this  staple 
food  is  out  of  the  reach  of  many.  The  best  thing 
they  can  do  is  to  fall  back  on  rice,  which  is 
an  excellent  substitute  for  potatoes  and  is  still 
reasonable  in  price.  Unfortunately,  large  numbers 
of  wage-earners  are  incapable  of  making  a  sudden, 
change  in  their  diet.  Many  women  that  have 
depended  upon  potatoes  all  their  lives  do  not 
know  how  to  cook  rice  or  hominy.  They  are  as 
helpless  with  these  substitutes  as  were  many  of  the 
Irish  people  Avith  the  com  m'eal  that  was  sent  to 
them  from  America  during  the  potato  famine,  or  a^ 
Hindus,  who  are  accustomed  to  rice,  would  be  when 
they  were  given  wheat  flour  to  cook.  This  scarcity  of 
potatoes  is  likely  to  cause  a  good  deal  of  hardship 
before  the  proper  use  of  the  cheaper  staples  is 
learned." 

And  this  is  in  America,  in  the  zenith  of  the  Age 
of  Transportation!  I  fancy  my  man  of  pack-horse 
and  cordelle  living  upon  rice!  I  fancy  Daniel 
Boone  or  Davy  Crockett  or  Kit  Carson  using  such 
diet  as  backing  for  his  deeds!  Meat  and  com 
are  the   diet  that   built  America.     Good  leaders  of 


THE  IRON  TRAILS  395 

America,  insist  not  over-much  on  this  rice  fare, 
as  you  do  at  present  in  these  bubble  days.  Let 
weediness  and  immaturity,  imported  overmuch, 
be  overrun  and  oppressed  by  organized  rapacity, 
and  then,  one  day,  good  leaders,  you  shall  see 
the  American  man  even  yet  fall  to  liis  well-learned 
task  of  leading  himself. 

This  is  in  America,  and  in  the  Age  of  Transpor- 
tation! I  read  of  these  startling  changes  and  can 
scarcely  believe  that  they  have  happened  within  a 
lifetime,  a  part  of  which  was  passed  in  a  West  where 
wealth  and  poverty,  arrogance  and  self-denial,  were 
alike  unknown;  where,  if  one  hungered,  he  was  free 
to  enter  the  door  of  any  little  cabin  he  found  here 
or  there  in  the  mountains,  and  to  eat  freely  of  what- 
ever food  he  found,  though  the  owner  of  the  abode 
himself  might  be  absent  and  might  forever  remain 
unknown;  where  the  thought  of  price  did  not  enter 
into  the  mind  of  either  the  uninvited  visitor  or  his 
unknown  host;  where  herds,  wild  or  tame,  covered 
a  country  vast,  inviting  and  hospitable;  where  each 
man  was  his  own  leader;  and  where  the  thought  of 
any  difficulty  in  the  simple  problem  of  making  a 
living  never  entered  into  the  heart  of  man ! 

Those  were  days  perhaps  of  not  so  great  and  ap- 
parent a  national  prosperity,  but  there  comes  a  catch 
in  the  throat  at  comparing  those  days  with  these.  The 


396  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

horror  of  it,  the  shameless  waste,  the  destructioiij 
the  change,  the  ruin  of  it  all — these  can  leave  us 
little  comfort  as  we  gaze  on  the  glittering  picture 
of  to-day.  As  a  nation  we  are  building  for  ourselves 
higher  and  higher  a  false  castle  of  prosperity,  blow- 
ing for  ourselves  wider  and  wider  a  bubble  fragile 
at  heart  as  any  that  ever  met  collapse  in  another 
day.  "Give  me  back  my  legions!^'  cried  the  Eoman 
general.  God  grant  there  may  never  bitterly  rise 
to  the  lips  of  an  American  leader  the  unavailing  cry, 
"Give  me  back  my  Americans!"  God  grant  there 
come  not  too  late  the  cry,  "Give  us  back  our 
America !" 

"Taking  it  all  around,"  says  an  unprejudiced 
writer,  "the  present  generation  in  the  United  States 
reminds  one  of  a  young  spendthrift  just  come  into  a 
fine  property,  accumulated  by  the  thrift  and  careful- 
ness of  many  ancestors.  He  thinks  he  is  something 
out  of  the  ordinary,  and  intends  showing  others  how 
things  should  be  done.  In  the  society  of  flatterers, 
epeculators  and  gamblers,  he  soon  parts  with  his 
ready  money  and  bank  stock.  He  then  sells  the  tim- 
ber off  his  land.  After  that  is  spent  he  sells  his  live 
etock.  Having  thus  deprived  himself  of  the  means 
for  the  proper  tillage  of  his  soil,  he  then  sells  the 
hay  crop  from  his  meadows  until  they  are  no  longer 
productive.     He  next  mortgages  his  property;  and 


THE  IRON  TRAILS  397, 

the  last  scene  in  the  final  act  is  the  auctioneer's 
hammer  at  the  public  vendue."* 

Another  commentatorf  takes  up  the  same  trend 
of  thought:  "The  cry  of  the  people  of  the  West/' 
says  he,  "is  rising  almost  to  the  ominous  threat  of 
revolution.  The  wealth  of  the  country  has  increased 
enormously,  but  it  is  becoming  concentrated  in  the 
hands  of  a  comparatively  few  individuals.  Only  in 
the  days  of  the  early  empire  and  late  republic  of 
Rome  was  it  possible  for  a  few  individuals  in  a  few 
years  to  amass  such  enormous  fortunes  as  they  do. 
Having  exploited  the  wealth  of  the  great  middle 
class,  we  are  now  drifting  into  the  second  stage. 
Small  investments  no  longer  pay.  There  is  no  East- 
ern or  Western  state  that  has  not  a  score  of  stranded 
towns  and  villages  once  prosperous  in  small  indus- 
tries. The  small  farmer  is  no  longer  able  to  make 
a  living  in  the  competition  which  he  meets.  .  .  . 
All  this  may  be  progress,  but  it  is  progress  over  a 
precipice." 

Still  another  observerf  carries  his  conclusions  yet 
further,  and  in  a  public  address  states:  "The  work 
of  such  men  as  [this  monopolist]  and  his  associates 
of  the  big  combinations  is  preparing  the  minds  of  our 


*Wm.  F.  Flynn,  in  "Forest  and  Stream." 

fProf.   Benjamin  F.  Terry,  of  tlie  University  of  Chicago, 

}Rev.  George  C.  Lorimer. 


398  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

people  for  socialism.  I  am  not  in  favor  of  socialism, 
but  men  like  these  so-called  captains  of  industry, 
who  are  opposed  to  socialism,  are  preparing  the  way 
for  the  rapid  spread  of  the  socialistic  idea.  Should 
some  able  leader  take  np  that  idea  and  advocate  it, 
we  shall  see  it  spread  with  tremendous  rapidity  in 
America." 

So  much  for  the  accomplishments  of  the  Age  of 
Transportation.  It  has  already  shown  us  the  mean- 
ing of  monopoly  and  has  shown  us  the  abolishment 
of  the  individual.  It  has  taught  us,  or  some  of  us, 
to  believe  that  the  establishment  of  an  expensive 
university  may  serve  as  emendative  of  an  unpop- 
ular personal  career.  It  has  taught  us,  or  some 
of  us,  obsequiously  to  worship  that  form  of  wealth 
that  soothes  its  conscience  by  the  building  of  pub- 
lic libraries.  Whether  or  not  learning  best  grows 
and  flourishes  that  has  such  foundation  heads,  library 
and  university  alike  umst  to-day  admit  their  im- 
potence to  answer  the  cry  of  the  leader,  "Give  me 
back  my  Americans!" 

The  America  of  to-day  is  an  America  utterly  and 
absolutely  changed  from  the  principles  whereon 
our  original  America  was  founded,  and  where- 
from  it  grew  and  flourished.  Never  was  there 
any  comer  of  Europe,  before  the  days  of  those 
revolutions  that  put  down  kings,  worse  than  some 


THE  IRON  TRAILS  399 

parts  of  oppressed  America  to-day.  It  is  not 
too  late  for  revolution  in  America.  There  is  not 
justice  in  the  belief  that  America  can  to-day  be 
called  the  land  of  the  free.  The  individual  is  no 
more.  He  perished  somewhere  on  those  heights 
we  have  seen  him  laboriously  ascending,  some- 
where on  those  long  rivers  we  have  seen  him 
tracing.  He  died  in  the  day  of  Across  the  Waters. 
To-day  we  have  labor  unions,  organizations  that 
in  the  old  West  would  have  called  forth  indignant 
contempt  in  the  mere  suggestion.  We  have  asso- 
ciations of  managers  to  fight  the  unions;  we  have 
monopolies,  combinations,  masses,  upon  the  one 
eide  and  the  other,  contending,  not  working  together 
harmoniously.  We  have  become  par  excellence  the 
people  of  castes  and  grades  and  classes.  The  whole 
theory  of  America  was  that  here  there  was  hope  for 
the  individual ;  that  here  he  might  grow,  might  pre- 
vail. It  is  degradation  to  abandon  that  theory.  It 
is  degradation  for  the  American  man  to  say  of  his 
own  volition :  "I  am  but  one  cog  of  a  wheel,  and  my 
neighbor  another.  I  can  not  change ;  I  can  not  rise ; 
I  can  not  progress ;  I  can  not  grow ;  I  dare  not  hope." 
The  degradation  of  the  industry  shares  the  degrada- 
tion of  the  individual.  The  joint  degradation,  if  it 
be  accepted  as  final,  spells  a  national  deterioration 
and  a  national  ruin  which  may  be  gradual  and  slow* 


40(S»  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

or  may,  in  these  swift-moving  days,  be  rapid  and 
cataclysmic  in  its  nature. 

We  liave  departed  from  the  careful  intent  of 
that  government  which  originally  abolished  for 
us  even  the  law  of  primogeniture,  a  clause  adopted 
in  the  state  constitutions  nearly  throughout  the 
Union.  Our  general  public  is  more  absolutely 
ruled  by  a  few  than  is-  the  case  in  any  portion 
of  the  earth.  Offsetting  this,  we  boast  of  our  ^'pros- 
perit/M  Let  those  that  like  call  this  a  national 
prosperity.  It  is  national  fate,  but  there  may  be 
those  that  do  not  care  to  call  it  by  the  name 
of  prosperity.  Times  are  good  when  all  the  people 
are  busy.  Most  of  the  people  in  the  South  were 
busy  before  the  war;  we  called  that  slavery.  It 
was  as  nothing  compared  to  the  industrial  slavery 
impending  over  the  American  people  to-day.  It  was 
simple  by  comparison  as  a  problem.  Tremendous 
indeed  is  the  problem  this  implies,  and  grave  and 
serious  indeed  should  he  be  who  attempts  to  solve  it. 
We  need  statesmen,  not  politicians,  to-day.  We  need 
men  willing  to  do  their  duty  in  office,  without  regard 
to  the  question  of  their  re-election  to  office. 

We  have  promised  that  our  study  of  American 
transportation  should  bring  us  close  to  the  heart  of 
things  in  our  national  life.  The  promise  may  be 
made  good  in  the  review  of  the  work  of  the  iron 


THE  IRON  TRAILS  401 

trails  in  the  Age  of  Transportation.  It  would  be 
but  raving  to  hold  the  captains  of  transportation 
alone  responsible  for  the  deplorable  changes  that 
are  taking  place  in  America  and  the  American  char- 
acter; yet  only  an  equal  folly  could  deny  that  too 
little  fearless  statesmanship,  combined  with  too 
much  politics  and  too  much  ungovemed  transporta- 
tion, has  been  responsible  for  many  of  these  changes. 
Any  candid  student  of  American  transportation  and 
of  American  politics  will  find  himself  irresistibly 
arriving  at  the  great  question  of  the  unrestricted 
American  immigration. 

We  Americans  have  claimed  this  continent  for 
humanity.  We  say  that  America  is  not  to  be  used 
by  the  Old  World  as  colonization  ground,  or  for  the 
planting  ground  of  Old  World  ideas  of  government; 
and  yet,  even  as  we  speak  these  words,  we  vitiate 
doctrine  even  wider  than  the  Monroe  doctrine — ^the 
doctrine  of  common  sense.  We  throw  open  the  gates 
of  America  and  invite  the  sodden  hordes  of  worth- 
less peasantry  to  flock  hither  and  pillage  this  coun- 
try, the  choicest  of  the  continent,  without  let  or 
hindrance,  without  requiring  of  them  the  first  stand- 
ard of  fitness  for  American  citizenship;  without  ask- 
ing of  them  even  the  slightest  educational  test  as 
to  their  fitness  to  enter  into  and  enjoy  a  part  of 


402  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

the  once  splendid  heritage  of  this  American  people. 
The  only  price  we  ask  is  a  ticket  and  a  vote. 

Of  a  truth,  there  would  be  justice  in  saying  that  we 
would  better  watch  not  so  much  South  America  as 
Castle  G-arden.  There  is  where  much  of  the  degrada- 
tion and  depression  of  American  life  is  going  on. 
There  is  where  trades-unionism  begins,  and  indeed 
must  begin.  There  is  where  monopolies  begin.  Tliere 
is  where,  indeed,  we  are  being  colonized  by  the  Euro- 
pean peoples.  For  those  that  come  here  to 
work,  to  study,  to  learn  and  to  grow  there 
may  be  room  yet  in  this  great  America. 
Eor  those  that  come  here  to  exist  as  para- 
sites there  should  be  no  longer  any  room.  All  this 
is  to  some  extent  the  act  of  common  carriers  in 
search  of  commerce.  Behind  this  search  there  often 
lies  all  too  certainly  the  intent  of  importation  of  a 
passive  and  semi-servile  class,*  content  to  accept  the 


♦Since  the  above  lines  were  written  the  following  editorial 
comment  appeared   in   a  leading  American  daily  newspaper: 

"Almost  every  nation  In  the  world  is  sending  an  increasing 
number  of  immigrants  to  the  United  States.  Last  month  (April, 
1903)  the  new-comers  numbered  126,200,  being  30,000  more  than 
for  April  of  1902.  The  total  for  the  year  may  reach  1,000,000,  or 
half  the  population  of  Chicago,  the  second  largest  city  in  the 
country. 

"Is  so  great  an  influx  of  foreigners  natural  or  desirable? 
Many  in  a  condition  to  know  say  that  immigration  is  promoted 
largely  by  mine-owners  and  railroad  managers,  who  wish  to  be 
kept  supplied  with  cheap  labor,  and  who  do  not  care  particularly 
whence  it  comes  or  whether  it  will  be  desirable  material  out  of 
which  to  make  American  citizens,  or  whether  its  presence  may 
not   contribute  to   social   or  industrial  disorder. 

"Many  of  the  great  railroad  systems  approve  of  unrestricted 


THE  IRON  TRAILS  403 

hardest  conditions  of  life,  and  content  to  accept  life 
barren  of  all  hope,  of  all  chance  for  future  better- 
ment. 

Such  life  is  un-American.  Every  one  of  these 
foreigners  comes  here  with  a  vote  in  his  hand. 
"We  have  long  allowed  the  vote  to  pay  for  every- 
thing; and,  seeing  that  he  had  a  vote,  the  poor  for- 
eigner though  turbulent  and  discontented,  has  per- 
force satisfied  himself  with  an  x4merica  not  much 


immigration  because  it  swells  their  profitable  emigrant  business. 
They  have  their  agents  in  Europe  soliciting  that  kind  of  business. 
The  greater  the  number  of  men  and  women  that  can  be  induced 
to  come  to  this  country  and  to  buy  tickets  to  interior  points,  the 
more  money  the  roads  make.  They  offer  low  ocean  and  rail  rates, 
which  tempt  the  emigrant  and  yet  are  profitable  to  the  roads. 

"While  some  great  employers  favor  unrestricted  immigration 
because  it  gives  them  cheap  labor,  the  labor  unions  may  reach, 
the  conclusion  that  for  that  very  reason  unrestricted  immigra- 
tion must  be  harmful  to  their  interests,  because  it  will  lead 
inevitably  to  a  reduction  of  wages.  When  the  supply  of  labor 
is  much  in  excess  of  the  demand  the  maintenance  of  a  high 
wage  scale  becomes  impossible. 

"While  a  large  percentage  of  the  immigration  is  unskilled 
labor,  it  must  be  remembered  that  many  unions  are  composed  of 
men  who  do  that  kind  of  labor.  Moreover,  some  of  them  will 
learn  trades  and  increase  the  number  of  skilled  workers.  When 
times  grow  dull  there  will  be  an  excess  of  workers  and  wages 
will  go  down.  The  labor  organizations  belonging  to  the  American 
Fedsration  of  Labor  asked  the  last  Congress  to  bar  out  illiterate 
immigrants.  The  object  was  to  keep  down  the  undesirable  cheap 
labor  immigration.  The  steamship  companies,  which  make  money 
off  their  steerage  passengers  and  drum  up  business  throughout 
eastern  Europe,  and  some  western  railroads  which  are  extending 
their  lines,  protested  against  and  defeated  the  legislation  'organ^ 
ized  labor'  petitioned  for.  Considering  the  swelling  tide  of 
immigration,  much  of  it  of  an  undesirable  nature,  the  labor 
leaders  probably  will  ask  the  next  Congress  in  emphatic  lan- 
guage to  order  the  exclusion  of  illiterates  to  protect  American 
labor  and  the  high   standard  of  American   citizenship." 


404  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

better  and  not  mucli  different  from  Europe.  As- 
suredly, the  time  will  come,  and  perhaps  presently, 
when  there  must  he  considered  with  all  seriousness 
this  question  of  a  mis-chosen  and  wrongfully  used 
factor  in  our  commercial  fabric.  It  is  not  the  upper 
branches  of  our  model  system  of  commerce  which 
are  wrong,  nor  will  pruning  those  upper  branches 
set  that  wrong  right.  We  must  go  to  the  root  of 
things. 

Surely  we  have  gone  forward  far  enough  in  our 
commercial  growth  to  learn  that  our  country  is  not 
exhaustless.  Were  it  so  we  should  not  to-day  be  con- 
sidering the  expenditure  of  hundreds  of  millions  of 
dollars  to  stretch  the  shrunken  acreage  of  the  once 
boundless  West.  Once  we  had  enough  for  all,  but  now 
we  no  longer  have  enough  for  all.  Once  we  could 
keep  open  house,  but  we  can  now  no  longer  do  so. 
There  comes  a  time  even  in  the  question  of  open 
house  when  the  doctrine  of  self  preservation,  greater 
than  any  Monroe  doctrine,  greater  than  any  consti- 
tution, must  have  its  place. 

We,  as  well  as  Great  Britain  and  other  world  powers, 
must  eventually  come  to  the  doctrine  of  selfishness. 
Great  Britain  herself,  a  land  not  offering  the  induce- 
ments held  out  by  America  to  the  penniless  settler, 
seriously  contemplates  the  restriction  of  immigra- 
tion along  the  severest  lines.     She  fears  becoming 


THE  IROlSr  TRAILS  405 

the  great  almshouse  of  Europe.  Shall  we  in  her 
stead  become  the  great  almshouse  of  the  world?  It 
is  suggested  b}^  a  foreign-born  philanthropist,  for  in- 
stance, that  America  should  forthwith  throw  open 
her  doors  to  the  five  millions  of  persecuted  Russian 
Jews.  English  authorities  cheerfully  believe  that 
America  could  easily  assimilate  this  grea;t  mass  of 
new  population.  There  are  many  American  captains 
of  politics  and  captains  of  transportation  who  would 
cheerfull}^  agree  in  throwing  this  task  of  assimilation 
upon  this  country;  but  this  attitude  can  not  long 
remain  indorsed  by  fearless  men  and  thoughtful  men 
unsodden  in  the  mire  of  modem  American  politics, 
or  unsmirched  in  the  grime  of  headlong  and  heed- 
less American  commerce. 

Under  all  this  discussion  and  all  these  generaliza- 
tions there  lies,  of  course,  the  great,  human,  indi- 
vidual question.  Back  of  all  stands  that  great,  pa- 
thetic figure,  the  man  about  whose  neck  fate  has 
hung  the  destiny  of  a  wife  and  children.  Once  there 
was  room  in  America  for  that  man.  Once  there  was 
hope  and  a  chance  ultimately  to  be  called  his  own.  It 
is  this  man,  this  simple,  common,  plain  x\merican  cit- 
izen who  is  to-day  most  vitally  concerned.  The  man 
we  have  with  us,  the  man  of  America,  who  has  helped 
win  and  make  America,  is  the  one  that  ought  to  be 


406  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

protected  by  America,  rather  than  the  one  that  still 
has  root  in  the  Old  World  soil  that  bore  him. 

This  is  selfishness ;  but  it  is  the  only  plan  that  offers 
hope  to  humanity  in  either  world.  The  glory,  the 
pride  of  America,  the  beauty  and  the  flowering  of  her 
growth,  have  root  in  her  splendid  heritage,  the  heri- 
tage of  a  virile  character  born  of  a  magnificent 
environment;  but  there  exists  no  heritage  which  may 
not  be  dissipated,  there  lives  no  blood  forever  proof 
against  continuous  vitiation. 

"The  American  people,"  says  the  governor  of  a 
Western  state,  "will  no  more  submit  to  commercial 
despotism  than  they  would  to  governmental  des- 
potism, and  the  tendency  in  the  one  case  can  be, 
and  will  be,  as  easily  thwarted  as  the  tendency  in 
the  other."  Let  us  leave  to  an  impartial  and  intelli- 
gent judgment  of  readers  the  question  whether  or 
not  there  exists  or  threatens  to  exist  in  America  a 
commercial  despotism;  whether  or  not  there  exists 
any  American  people ;  whether  or  not  we  have,  in  the 
foregoing  pages,  found  any  causes  for  the  changes 
and  tendencies  toward  change  that  are  to-day  un- 
mistakable phenomena — changes  so  rapid  and  ele- 
mental that  any  true  American  ought  to  be  ashamed 
to  say,  "I  belong  without  thought  to  this,  that  or  the 
other  political  party."  Perhaps  we  shall  be  all  the 
better  fortified  with  premises  if  we  delve  a  trifle 


THE  IRON  TRAILS  407 

deeper  into  the  statistics  of  this  question  of  foreign 
immigration;  for  any  writer  deals  better  in  unde- 
niable premises  than  in  ready-made  conclusions. 

The  tables  compiled  by  the  United  States  Com- 
missioner of  Labor  are  conclusive.  At  the  begin- 
ning of  the  Revolutionary  War  four-fifths  of  the 
American  population  could  claim  English  as  their 
native  tongue.  To-day  not  half  our  population  can 
make  such  claim.  There  is  interest  in  the  story  of 
the  statistics. 

"The  number  of  immigrants  coming  into  this 
country  between  1820  and  June  thirtieth,  1900,  was 
nineteen  million  one  hundred  and  fifteen  thousand 
two  hundred  and  twenty-one.  Prior  to  1820  the  gov- 
ernment did  not  take  account  of  immigration,  but  the 
generally  accepted  estimate  of  the  total  immigration 
between  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution  and  1820 
is  but  two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand.  This  num- 
ber is  not  included  in  the  above  total. 

"The  character  of  the  immigration  has  changed 
in  a  most  interesting  way.  From  1821  to  1850,  two 
and  three-tenths  per  cent  of  our  immigration  came 
from  Canada  and  Newfoundland;  during  the  next 
decade,  1851  to  1860,  the  percentage  was  the  same, 
and  during  the  last  decade  only  one-tenth  per  cent,  of 
the  immigrants  was  from  those  sections.  From  1821 
to  1850,  twenty-four  and  two-tenths  per  cent,  came 


408  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

from  Germany,  and  in  the  next  decade  thirty-six  and 
six-tenths  per  cent.,  this  heing  the  highest  percentage 
reached  by  the  Germans.  During  the  last  decade 
the  Germans  supplied  only  thirteen  and  seven-tenths 
per  cent,  of  our  foreign  immigration.  During  the 
period  first  named,  1821  to  1850.,  Great  Britain  fur- 
nished fifteen  per  cent,  of  the  immigrants,  and  in  the 
next  decade  sixteen  and  three-tenths  per  cent.  Then 
came  a  large  increase  from  Great  Britain  between 
1861  and  1870,  the  percentage  being  twenty-six  and 
two-tenths;  from  1871  to  1880  it  was  nineteen  and 
five-tenths,  while  for  the  last  decade  it  was  but  seven 
and  four-tenths.  From  1821  to  1850  Ireland  fur- 
nished forty-two  and  three-tenths  per  cent,  of  our  im- 
migrants, and  between  1851  and  1860  thirty-five  and 
two-tenths  per  cent.  Since  then  there  has  been  a 
rapid  decrease,  and  between  1891  and  1900  Ireland 
furnished  but  ten  and  five-tenths  per  cent,  of  our 
immigrants.  Those  from  Norway  and  Sweden  con- 
stituted only  six-tenths  per  cent,  between  1821  and 
1850.  The  Scandinavians  increased  in  numbers  be- 
tween 1881  and  1890,  when  their  proportion  was  ten 
and  eight-tenths  per  cent. ;  during  the  last  decade  it 
was  eight  and  seven-tenths  per  cent. 

"The  immigration  from  the  whole  group  just 
named,  Canada  and  Newfoundland,  Germany,  Great 
Britain,  Ireland,  and  Norway  and  Sweden,  shows  a 


THE  IRON  TRAILS  409 

marked  relative  decrease.  While  the  immigrants 
from  these  countries  constituted  seventy-four  and 
three-tenths  per  cent  of  the  whole  number  of  immi- 
grants during  the  entire  period  under  discussion, 
they  furnished  between  1821-  and  1850  eighty-four 
and  four-tenths  per  cent,  of  the  total,  and  during  the 
next  decade  ninety-one  and  two-tenths  per  cent.,  since 
which  time  there  has  been  a  rapid  decrease,  this 
group  of  countries  during  the  last  decade  furnishing 
but  forty  and  four-tenths  per  cent. 

''These  figures  enable  us  to  bring  into  direct  and 
sharp  comparison  the  imnfigration  from  countries 
that  fifty  years  ago  furnished  hardly  any  incre- 
ment to  our  population.  From  1851  to  1860  Aus- 
tria-Hungary sent  no  immigrants  to  this  country,  or 
not  enough  to  make  any  impression  upon  the  statis- 
tics, but  between  1861  and  1870  the  immigration 
from  that  country  was  four-tenths  per  cent.,  during 
the  next  decade  two  and  six-tenths  per  cent,  from 
1881  to  1890  six  and  seven-tenths  per  cent,  while 
during  the  last  decade  it  was  sixteen  and  one-tenth 
per  cent. 

'Italy,  beginning  with  two-tenths  per  cent,  during 
the  period  from  1821  to  1850,  increased  to  two  per 
cent,  between  1871  and  1880,  and  to  nearly  six  per 
cent,  during  the  next  decade,  while  during  the  last 


410  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

decade  that  country  furnished  seventeen  and  seven- 
tenths  per  cent,  of  our  total  number. 

"The  proportions  for  Kussia  and  Poland  are  almost 
identical  with  those  of  Italy.  Those  two  countries, 
taken  together,  beginning  with  only  one-tenth  per 
cent,  of  our  total  number  of  immigrants  between  1821 
and  1850,  increased  but  sKghtly  until  between  1881 
and  1890,  when  they  contributed  five  per  cent.,  and 
during  the  last  decade  sixteen  and  three-tenths  per 
cent.  These  three  sections — Austria-Hungary,  Italy, 
and  Eussia  and  Poland — taken  together,  contributed 
during  the  last  decade  fifty  and  one-tenth  per  cent,  of 
our  immigrants,  as  against  forty  and  four-tenths  per 
cent.,  as  stated,  for  the  group  of  five  countries  first 
named ;  nine  and  five-tenths  per  cent,  came  from  else- 
where. 

"It  is  interesting  to  know  how  many  of  the  nine- 
teen million  one  hundred  fifteen  thousand  two  hun- 
dred and  twenty-one  immigrants  coming  to  this  coun- 
try since  1821  are  now  living.  The  recent  census, 
by  its  classification  of  population  into  native  and  for- 
eign born,  answers  the  question,  and  we  find  that  of 
the  total  number  of  immigrants  fifty-four  and  seven- 
tenths  per  cent,  were  living  in  June,  1900.  In  1880 
sixty-two  per  cent,  of  the  whole  number  of  immi- 
grants at  that  date  were  living,  while  in  1850  forty- 
four  and  four-tenths  per  cent,  were  still  in  existence. 


THE  IROISr  TRAILS  411 

.  .  .  The  conclusion  unfortunately  is  un- 
avoidable/' says  the  statistician,  "that  our  immigra- 
tion is  constantly  increasing  in  illiteracy,  and  the  im- 
migrants themselves  are  shomng  higher  percentage 
of  illiteracy.  Nearly  one-half  of  our  steerage  immi- 
gration now  presents  an  illiteracy  of  from  forty  to 
over  fifty  per  cent.  Of  the  three  hundred  eighty- 
eight  thousand  nine  hundred  and  thirty-one  steerage 
aliens  who  arrived  during  the  year,  the  following 
totals  are  given  for  the  principal  countries'' : 

Males.  Females. 

Southern  Italian 86,929  24,396 

Polish  25,466  12,170 

Hebrew 23,343  19,894 

German    17,238  12,442 

Slavic    19,309  7,622 

Northern  Italian    16,202  4,158 

Scandinavian    12,200  9,981 

And  fifty  per  cent,  of  them  are  illiterate !  Shall  we 
let  them  come?  Shall  we  perhaps  teach  them  to  eat 
rice  with  the  rest  of  us?  Shall  we  divide  our  in- 
heritance with  them?  Shall  we  remember  only  that 
each  of  them  has  a  vote?  The  leveling  methods  of 
the  Age  of  Transportation,  the  day  of  the  iron 
trails,  have  made  possible,  and  have  made  impera- 
tive, these  very  questions.  Their  answer  lies  in  the 
future,  yet  perhaps  no  very  distant  future.     There 


412  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

are  not  lacking  those,  and  they  constantly  increase  in 
numbers,  who  believe  that  the  answer  must  be  the 
putting  up  of  the  bars  against  all  future  immigration 
except  of  a  closely  selected  sort,  and  preferably  that 
bred  upon  this  continent.  America  has  eaten 
overmuch;  she  may  yet  assimilate,  but  she  must 
gorge  no  more.  We  can  now  rear  actual  Ameri- 
cans enough  to  feed  the  world,  and  to  defeat  the 
world  when  the  time  shall  come  for  the  fatal  shock 
of  arms,  and  under  a  system  of  rest  and  recuperation 
we  may  become  a  united  and  strong  America;  while 
under  the  system  of  the  past,  and  the  system  that  now 
prevails,  we  must  presently  become  a  warring  and 
divided,  hence  a  weakening,  land. 


CHAPTEK  II 

THE  PATHWAYS  OF  THE  FUTURE 

The  open  and  abounding  West  is  no  more.  From 
California,  from  all  the  interior  regions  of  the  great 
dry  plains  rises  the  same  cry,  that  the  government 
should  take  measures  to  give  the  people  more  land; 
that  by  means  of  irrigation  it  should  restore,  in  some 
measure  at  least,  the  opportunities  which  allured 
the  men  who  in  the  old  days  followed  in  the  pilgrim- 
age ''out  West."  This  changed  and  restricted  region 
has  problems  entirely  different  from  those  of  the 
West  that  was. 

Once  we  wished  a  population  to  embrace  the  oppor- 
tunities that  abounded  in  the  West.  Now  we  wish 
to  increase  the  opportunities  for  a  population  clamor- 
ing for  a  better  chance  than  is  offered  anywhere  in 
America.  It  is  demanded  that  the  government  shall 
bring  about  reclamation  of  the  arid  lands,  and  their 
actual  settlement  in  small  tracts.  "The  political  party 
that  shall  boldly  advocate  a  great  national  irrigation 
appropriation  will  receive  the  support  of  millions  of 
people,  now  homeless  and  discontented,  who  desire 
homes  and  an  opportunity  to  make  a  living  by  hon- 
413 


41-i  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

est  labor."  This  is  the  statement  of  a  master  in 
transportation^,  who  has  assisted  in  the  importation  of 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  these  homeless  and  dis- 
contented people  into  an  America  too  suddenly 
gone  small.  He  would  scarcely  care  to  see  our  rail- 
roads under  government  control,  but  he  can  suggest 
a  method  by  which  the  government  could  be  im- 
mensely helpful  to  the  Western  people,  and  perhaps 
to  the  Western  railroads! 

In  yet  another  prominent  railroad  office,  the  con- 
versation lately  turned  upon  the  future  of  the  car- 
rying trade  in  the  West,  when  another  of  these  cap- 
tains of  transportation  swept  his  hand  in  a  large 
circle  on  a  map  that  hung  on  the  wall.  Within 
his  circle  was  included  a  good  portion  of  Montana 
and  Wyoming,  with  other  parts  of  the  great  Western 
interior.  "All  this  region  must  go  under  irriga- 
tion," said  he.  "It  is  worthless  to-day  for  farming 
purposes,  but  there  exists  no  richer  soil  when  once 
you  get  water  on  it.  There  is  no  county  or  state 
government,  there  is  not  even  the  richest  railroad 
corporation,  that  can  afford  to  put  this  vast  acreage 
under  the  ditch.  It  is  a  problem  for  the  national 
government  of  the  United  States;  and,  mark  my 
words,  that  government  will  one  day  be  obliged  to 
solve  that  problem.  Of  course,  the  interest  of  our 
railroad   in   the   matter    is   purely   a   business   one. 


PATHWAYS  OF  THE  FUTURE         415 

We  want  this  country  settled  up,  not  by  a  few  scat- 
tered grazers,  but  by  many  producing  farmers.  We 
want  this  country  filled  full  of  small  land  holders, 
not  that  we  may  carry  their  products  to  the  East  on 
our  railway,  but  so  that  we  may  carr}^  them  west 
to  the  Pacific,  and  thence  across  the  ocean  to  the 
Asiatic  market.  There  must  be  a  new  West,  and  for 
that  West  the  market  must  be  found  in  Asia." 

The  common  carriers,  therefore,  tell  us  that  our 
West  is  now  beyond  the  Pacific;  that  the  East  has 
come  into  the  West;  that  the  Old  World  has  come 
into  the  Xew;  that  the  Latin  methods  of  farming 
must  supplant  the  Anglo-Saxon  ways.  Perhaps;  but 
this  will  take  some  time.  As  against  the  likelihood 
of  any  early  and  sweeping  national  action  in  the  mat- 
ter, there  remains  chiefly  the  vis  inertice  of  mental 
habit  in  the  American  farmer,  who  hitherto  has  not 
been  acquainted  with  the  doctrine  of  irrigation  and 
reclamation.  Vast  tracts  of  California,  Colorado, 
New  Mexico,  Arizona,  Texas — large  regions  in  what 
was  once  considered  the  irreclaimable  desert  of 
America,  go  to  show  that  the  Western- American  can 
learn  irrigation  and  can  successfully  carry  on  farm- 
ing of  that  nature;  but  none  the  less,  for  the  average 
American  farmer,  who  has  been  accustomed  to  the 
wide-handed  methods  of  his  forefathers,  this  propo- 
eition  will  carry  no  immediate  appeal. 


416  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

The  proof  of  this  latter  statement  lies  in  tEat 
very  emigration  into  Canada  to  which,  attention  has 
been  called^  and  which  constitutes  one  of  the  most 
remarkable  phenomena  ever  known  in  the  history 
of  the  American  West.  These  dwellers  under  the 
Stars  and  Stripes,  these  citizens  of  the  land  of  the 
free,  of  the  land  supposed  to  offer  the  greatest  ex- 
tent of  human  opportunity  to-day,  are  flocking  across 
her  borders  with  the  purpose  of  establishing  homes 
in  an  alien  land,  and  under  a  flag  from  which  in  a 
century  gone  by  they  made  deliberate  and  forcible  de- 
sertion ! 

They  want  the  cheap  lands,  the  wide  acres,  the 
great  horizon  of  a  West,  even  if  they  must  find  that 
West  in  land  other  than  that  which  bore  them! 
They  do  not  want  irrigated  land  that  is  worth  one 
hundred  dollars  an  acre,  even  though  there  be  an 
unchanging  and  pleasant  climate  as  an  attraction 
thereto.  They  prefer  a  cold,  bleak  environment,  a 
rude,  hard  life,  with  poorer  markets,  a  looser  touch 
with  civilization,  but  with  a  bolder,  a  wider  and  freer 
individual  horizon.  There  has  been  nothing  in  our 
history  more  pathetic  than  this.  There  has  been 
nothing  more  cheerlessly  disheartening  in  our  his- 
tory than  the  thought  that  we  are  exchanging  thou- 
sands of  men  of  this  bold  and  rugged  type,  men 
who  are  willing  and  able  to  go  out  into  the  savage 


PATHWAYS  OF  THE  FUTURE         417 

wilderness  and  lay  it  under  tribute,  for  an  equal 
number  of  thousands  of  shiftless  and  unambitious 
incoming  population,  who  are  willing  to  lire  on  the 
droppings  of  the  American  table. 

As  to  the  extent  of  this  American  emigration 
northward  into  Canada,  the  figures  are  great  enough 
to  cause  consternation  in  the  mind  of  more  than  one 
railroad  man,  and  to  set  on  foot  all  possible  meas- 
ures of  checking  the  outgoing  stream.  Within  the 
year  1902  more  than  fifty  thousand  American  citi- 
zens, some  say  seventy-five,  even  a  hundred  thousand, 
are  thought  to  have  taken  up  homes  on  the  soil  of 
Canada.  These  American  emigrants  took  with  them 
twenty  million  dollars  out  of  the  banks  of  Iowa  alone. 
Great  syndicates,  in  part  made  up  of  American  capi- 
talists and  in  conjunction  with  American  and  Cana- 
dian masters  of  transportation,  have  undertaken  the 
settlement  of  large  tracts  of  these  cheap  Canadian 
lands. 

The  settlers  of  the  remoter  West,  the  men  from 
Iowa,  Minnesota,  the  Dakotas,  and  so  forth,  largely 
move  into  Manitoba  or  other  western  British  prov- 
inces. Farther  to  the  east,  in  what  is  known  as 
;N'ew  Ontario  under  the  new  railroad  industrial  policy, 
an  equally  determined  effort  is  making  to  influence 
American  citizens  to  settle  on  lands  subject  to  the 
rigorous  climate  north  of  Lake  Superior.     If  only 


418  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

tlie  settler  shall  come  here  he  may  have  land  at  any 
price  he  likes,  on  terms  of  payment  that  shall  suit 
himself.  In  all  the  large  Canadian  cities,  whether 
under  government  countenance  or  not,  there  are 
emigration  bureaus.  In  the  cities  of  St.  Paul  and 
Minneapolis  there  are  yet  other  emigration  offices, 
proclaiming  as  flamboyantly  as  they  ever  did  for 
the  lands  of  the  United  States,  the  attractions  of  a 
home  in  the  far  Northwest,  across  the  borders  of 
the  United  States. 

Canada  lost  one-fifth  of  her  population  to  the 
United  States.  She  is  regaining  much  of  it  to-day, 
because  she  still  has  a  West,  and  we  have  none.  There 
is  systematic,  deliberate  and  highly  differentiated 
effort  going  on  toward  the  influencing  of  this  Ameri- 
can emigration.  To  offset  it  we  have  nothing  to  offer 
'except  the  incoming  stream  of  city  dwellers  from 
Europe,  and  the  possible  policy  of  national  irrigation, 
subject  always  to  the  dubious  methods  of  American 
politics.  Gaze  now  once  more,  if  you  like,  on  the  pic- 
ture of  the  old  West  and  of  the  new ! 

England  fears,  and  in  some  portions  of  Canada 
that  fear  is  shared,  that  these  Americans  will  not  be- 
come good  Canadian  subjects;  that,  in  short,  Canada 
will  become  Americanized.  Only  the  years  will  tell. 
These  great  popular  movements  are  matters  of  indi- 
vidual self-interest.     The  day  of  the  individual  is 


PATHWAYS  OF  THE  FUTURE         419^ 

indeed  passing,  yet  it  is  not  to  pass  without  a  fight 
to  the  last  gasp  upon  the  part  of  that  individual 
himself.  It  would  lie  ill  to  suggest  that  the  Ameri- 
can government  has  not  always  properly  treated  its 
people,  in  spite  of  that  vast  modern  meshwork  of 
monopolies  and  combinations  which  has  brought 
about  practically  an  industrial  slavery,  and  has 
gone  so  far  toward  bidding  our  once  free  American 
to  hope  for  freedom  no  more.  Yet  the  answer  as  to 
the  patriotism  of  the  American  people  lies  silent 
before  us  in  the  records  of  the  ticket  offices  of  these 
railways  that  run  from  America  into  Canada. 

In  a  view  of  the  past  American  transportation 
methods,  and  of  that  natural  Monroe  doctrine  whose 
basis  lies  in  the  abundant  natural  richness  of  the 
environment  of  the  American  temperate  zone,  it  is 
no  unbiased  prophecy  to  suggest  that  this  question 
will  eventually  be  settled,  not  by  the  government  of 
the  United  States,  not  by  the  government  of  Eng- 
land, not  by  the  government  of  Canada,  but  by  the 
people  themselves.  If  the  transportation  of  the  fu- 
ture shall  make  Canada  and  the  United  States  alike, 
then  assuredly  the  people  will  attend  to  the  rest,  and 
care  not  what  may  be  the  politics  or  the  government 
of  either  the  one  land  or  the  other.  The  eventual 
settlement  of  the  West  may  mean  a  country  in  which 
there  shall  be  small  distinction  between  Canada  and 
the  United  States,  small  distinction  between  the  lat- 


420  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

ter  and  the  more  desirable  parts  of  the  republic  of 
Mexico  on  the  south.  If  these  questions  shall  be 
settled  in  Washington  or  Ottawa,  it  is  safe  prophecy 
to  believe  that  it  will  be  in  the  railroad  offices  and 
not  the  governmental  offices  of  those  respective  cit- 
ies. It  takes  more  than  politics  to  suppress  the  in- 
stinct that  seeks  individual  well  being.  It  takes 
more  than  politics  to  prevent  water  from  running 
down-hill. 

The  reply  to  such  prophecy  or  foreboding,  or 
guessing,  as  one  may  choose  to  call  it,  which  has 
been  provided  by  the  government  of  England,  is  not 
apt  to  take  any  form  different  from  the  ancient 
policy  of  England,  which  after  all  is  military.  Eng- 
land is  old  and  is,  or  presently  will  be,  decadent. 
Her  bigotry  is  that  of  age,  her  unprogressive  slow- 
ness of  change  is  senile.  She  has  been  the  great 
colonizer;  and  in  so  far  as  the  development  of  trans- 
portation facilities  has  brought  her  colonies  closer 
home  to  her,  it  has  given  England  hope — her  only 
hope — ^that  of  existing  in  the  future  of  her 
robust  children.  Yet  we  find  the  concern  of  Eng- 
land to-day  to  be  that  of  securing  military  touch  with 
all  the  comers  of  the  world,  rather  than  that  of  estab- 
lishing a  flexible  and  durable  system  of  transporta- 
tion methods  that  shall  make  for  the  individual 
well-being  of  all  her  widely  scattered  subjects. 


PATHWAYS  OF  THE  FUTURE         421 

England,  concerned  with  this  American  invasion  of 
settlers,  is  to-day  planning  a  great  trans-Canadian 
road,  whose  western  head  shall  lie  somewhere  within 
striking  distance  of  Asia.  "This/'  says  one  com- 
mentator, "is  England's  answer  to  Russia  and  the 
trans-Siberian  railway."  To  a  humble  observer  it 
might  seem  far  safer  were  England  concerned,  not  so 
much  in  answering  Russia,  as  in  answering  the 
United  States. 

The  best  answer  to  Russia  would  be  multitudes  of 
farms  in  Western  Canada,  which  one  day  we  may 
call  Western  America.  She  can  make  that  answer 
only  by  learning  the  methods  of  the  United  States. 
Till  in  some  measure  she  shall  have  done  so,  she  can 
not  be  safe  as  against  the  inroads  of  the  American 
citizens.  She  can  not  restore  the  level  of  the  waters 
by  the  building  of  railroads  with  military  reasons 
under  them.  There  may  be  a  time  in  the  history  of 
the  North  American  mid-continent  when  Canada  and 
the  United  States  will  agree  that  it  is  better  to  get 
along  comfortably  together  than  it  is  to  aid  a  far-off 
and  somewhat  mythical  government  to  fight  its  battles 
somewhere  at  the  end  of  military  roads. 

Our  little  Western  secessionists,  our  little  fron- 
tier republics  cleaved  to  the  government  at  Washing- 
ton as  soon  as  the  pathways  thereto  made  s<uch  loy- 
alty a  possible  thing.    It  is  nearer  from  Quebec  and. 


4.22  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

Ottawa  to  Washington  than  it  is  to  London.  Pa- 
triotisni  is  much  a  matter  of  transportation.  The 
faster  the  ocean  steamships,  the  hetter  the  tele- 
graphic communication,  the  nearer  Canada  is  to  Eng- 
land; yet  at  the  same  time  relatively  she  grows  still 
nearer  to  the  United  States.* 

Germane  to  these  questions  are  those  that  rise 
as  to  the  opening  of  additional  avenues  of  industry 
at  the  other  end  of  those  pathways  that  stretch 
out  across  the  Pacific  Ocean.  In  the  mad  race  for 
the  gates  of  the  imperial  city  of  China,  America 
had  no  real  friends  at  her  side.  That  was  the  time 
when  the  covetous  powers  of  Europe,  owners  of 
lands  overpopulated  and  industries  overcrowded, 
conceived  that  they  had  at  length  opportunity  to 


♦Canada  does  not  lack  a  fearless  view  in  some  of  these  matters. 
In  1902  a  prominent  journal  of  Halifax,  N.  S.,  boldly  compared 
British  and  American  institutions:  "Had  our  forefathers  thrown 
in  their  lot  with  the  other  American  colonies  at  the  time  of  the 
Revolution,"  says  this  journal  editorially,  "Nova  Scotia  would 
now  be  a  greater  Massachusetts.  The  Dominion  of  Canada  would 
have  five-fold  its  wealth  and  population."  Per  contra,  American, 
emigrants  face  some  facts  which  to-day  are  not  wholly  satisfactory. 
Taxation  in  Canada  in  1901  was  $10  per  capita,  and  but  $7.50  per 
capita  in  the  United  States.  To-day  the  debt  of  the  Dominion  is 
$66  per  capita,  whereas  that  of  the  United  States  figures  but  $14.52. 
In  proportion  to  population,  Canada  has  twice  as  much  foreign 
trade  as  the  United  States;  yet  much  of  her  foreign  trade  is  with 
the  United  States.  The  Dominion  of  Canada  clings  still  to  the 
mother  country,  but  in  these  modern  days,  the  lines  between  states 
and  provinces  and  governments  become  annually  more  faint.  Life 
bases  itself  upon  the  doctrine  of  the  survival  of  the  fittest.  The 
interdependence  of  a  mutual  self  interest  makes  the  strongest 
bonds  between  peoples,  between  governments,  or  between  govern- 
ment and  people. 


PATHWAYS  OF  THE  FUTURE         423 

urge  quarrel  on  a  weaker  land,  with  the  result  of 
a  war  in  which  the  weaker  power  would  inevitably 
be  obliged  to  pay  the  penalty  of  unsuccessful  resort 
to  arms.  England  and  Germany  wished  to  do  what 
England  had  been  doing  in  South  Africa  and  else- 
where for  some  time.  They  wanted  a  quarrel  and 
a  war,  therefore  a  dismemberment  and  a  division. 
Water  transportation  is  cheap.  The  coal  and  iron 
of  China  lie  close  to  water  transportation.  It  had 
excellently  well  served  the  designs  of  England  and 
Germany  to  parcel  out  this  land,  so  full  of  raw 
material  fit  for  manufacturing  purposes.  It  had 
excellently  well  suited  the  powers  to  wipe  the  bar- 
barians off  the  map,  as  has  been  done  in  so  many 
South  Asiatic  and  South  African  transactions  of  a 
similar  nature.  The  secret  of  the  Christian  indigna- 
tion at  the  barbarity  of  the  heathen  Chinese  is  none 
too  much  a  secret  in  the  frank  vision  of  commercial 
desire. 

The  part  of  America  in  this  game  was  well  played. 
It  is  too  late  now  to  cry  out  for  an  America 
for  Americans.  We  have  squandered  our  substance, 
wasted  our  heritage,  played  the  spendthrift  royally 
as  we  might.  Now  it  is  too  late.  We  may  shut  our 
gates  on  the  East,  but  we  must  some  time  take  our 
part  in  the  great  game  of  going  abroad  in  the  West. 
We  have  not  yet  felt  that  time  to  be  near  at  hand : 


4.24:  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST. 

but  it  was  splendid  statesmanship  on  the  part  of 
America  that  kept  China  intact  for  yet  a  while,  and 
got  the  armies  off  her  soil. 

The  blandishments  of  England  and  Germany 
ought  not  to  appeal  to  America.  There  is  no  nation 
that  loves  us  unselfishly,  or  that  would  aid  us  unsel- 
fishly were  we  in  need  of  help  ;*  but  if  it  shall  one  day 
come  to  the  last  bitter  game  among  the  nations, 
there  will  be  none  then  so  well  equipped  as  we.  We 
shall  not  need  to  call  for  aid.  An  English  journal 
deems  it  ^^crude  vulgarity"  for  the  United  States 
to  think  of  wresting  the  maritime  supremacy  from 
Great  Britain.  It  may  be  such,  though  we  are  not 
sure.  It  was  perhaps  crude  vulgarity  when  we  took 
America  from  Great  Britain,  when  we  took  for  our- 
selves a  country  so  full  of  natural  wealth,  a  country 
so  perfect  for  the  upbuilding  of  an  aggressive  and 
self-reliant  national  character.  It  might  be  crude 
vulgarity  if  we  took  this  whole  American  continent 
as  our  own.  Let  us  hope  that  this  same  character  may 
still  abide  with  us  when  we  find  need  for  the  farther 
crude  vulgarity  of  going  abroad  into  the  world.  That 
we  are  meantime  going  abroad  is  without  question 
true ;  not  at  the  direction  of  our  "leaders,"  not  by  rea- 


*Unles3  it  might  perhaps  be  the  republic,  France,  from  whom 
vre  took  the  difficult  doctrine  that  all  men  are  "free  and  equal." 


PATHWAYS  OF  THE  FUTUKE        425 

son  of  our  politics,  but  by  reason  of  our  transporta- 
tion. 

The  South,  always  the  leader  into  the  West,  ex- 
claims politically  against  the  look  toward  Asia.  It 
is  but  politics.  The  Tennessee  troops  fought  well  in 
the  Philippines.  Not  all  the  world  can  stop  us  from 
thus  going  abroad.  Whether  we  shall  come  home 
again  at  a  later  date  remains  yet  to  be  seen.  Whether 
we  shall  then  have  left  a  home  worth  the  name  re- 
mains yet  to  be  proved. 

Such  are  some  of  the  localities  and  situations  into 
which  our  trails  have  nationally  led  us;  such 
some  of  the  problems  into  which  our  vaunted 
Age  of  Transportation  is  carrying  us.  There 
are  new  equations,  new  questions,  new  prob- 
lems constantly  confronting  us  with  an  ever 
growing  urgency.  It  is  not  in  any  wise  certain 
that  a  dispassionate  study  of  this  nature  can  leave 
us  with  a  national  vanity  wholly  untouched.  It  is 
not  altogether  sure  that  the  conclusions  framed  upon 
our  chosen  premises,  inevitable  as  they  are,  can  leave 
the  student  wholly  convinced  of  either  our  universal 
euccess  or  our  universal  happiness. 

Yet  we  shall  do  best  to  dismiss  forebodings,  and 
to  cling,  as  still  we  may,  to  the  faith  and  hope 
that  was  part  of  the  American  birthright.  In- 
deed, we  find  it  difficult  to  study  even  our  grim  col- 


426  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

nmns  of  figures,  our  unimaginative  records  of  events, 
without  still  retaining  tlie  curious  and  awesome  feel- 
ing that  heretofore  the  settlement  of  the  American 
West,  the  birth  and  growth  of  the  American  man, 
has  been  a  matter  of  fate,  of  destiny.  There  seemed 
to  be  a  mighty  west-bound  tide  of  humanity  of  which 
we  were  but  spectators,  if  indeed  we  were  not  part 
of  the  tide's  burden  of  hurried  flotsam,  carried  for- 
ward without  plan  or  aim  or  purpose. 

We  go  on  apparently  still  without  plan,  apparently 
still  borne  forward  in  a  throng  resistless  as  of  yore. 
Perhaps  in  the  forefront  of  our  ranks  we  carry  trump 
of  Jericho  for  other  lands;  if  not  in  the  bugle  note 
of  our  armies,  at  least  in  the  humming  of  our  com- 
merce. Let  us  hope  that  we  do  not  invite  a  trumpet 
call  at  our  own  walls. 

A  million  dead  men  are  forgotten.  Our  wars 
are  as  nothing.  But  a  million  live  men,  taken  up 
bodily  from  one  environment,  and  set  down  bodily 
in  another  environment  in  any  antipodal  quarter 
of  the  world — that  means  history;  that  spells  ques- 
tions in  forethought;  that  bids  rise  an  American 
statesmanship  big  and  honest,  not  selfish,  not  cor- 
rupt, and  not  afraid!  These  questions  are  such  as 
must  be  approached  wholly  without  reference  to 
party  or  to  politics. 

It  has  been  hitherto  in  America  not  so  much  a 


PATHWAYS  OF  THE  FUTURE        427 

question  of  politics  as  of  roads;  but  now  the  roads 
are  builded  that  shall  lead  us  to  our  City  of  De- 
sire or  to  our  Castle  of  Despair.  Steam  will  estab- 
lish our  doctrines  and  our  tariffs.  But  steam  has  no 
soul.  To  it,  our  flap-hatted  frontiersman,  our  new- 
American,  our  product  of  a  noble  and  unparalleled 
evolution,  is  but  the  same  as  the  wrinkled-booted 
foreigner  that  puts  down  his  black  box  in  the  mid- 
dle of  a  Dakota  prairie  or  in  the  heart  of  a  crowded 
Eastern  city.  Steam  has  no  care  for  the  real  glory 
of  our  flag.  It  cares  naught  for  character.  It  does 
not  love  humanity.  In  it  dwells  no  ancient  love  for 
the  history  of  an  America  which  at  least  might  once 
have  been  dear  to  the  heart  of  all  humanity.  Steam 
is  an  equalizer.  It  breaks  down  the  lines  between 
nations.  It  makes  America  like  unto  Europe,  caus- 
ing us  to  change  to  meet  the  changes  of  the  Old 
World.  If  we  be  not  careful  we  shall  see  going  for- 
ward that  equalizing  of  humanity  that  is  brutaliz- 
ing. And  then  in  the  good  time  of  the  ages  we 
shall  see  cataclysm,  revolution,  change. 

Whatever  the  product  of  that  change  after  the 
revolutions  that  are  yet  to  be,  no  man  of  all  the 
future  will  ever  again  behold  a  land  like  that 
American  West  which  is  now  no  more.  That  was 
indeed  a  land  rich  in  the  bounty  of  nature,  rich 
in  opportunity  for  humanity.     It  was  a  land  where 


428  THE  WAY  TO  THE  WEST 

a  man  could  indeed  be  a  man ;  where  indeed  he  might 
live  honestly  and  cleanly  and  nobly,  unshrinking 
from  his  fate,  unfearing  for  his  own  survival,  help- 
ful to  his  neighbor,  independent  as  to  himself. 

Now  we  have  seen  our  old  rider  going  far,  our 
fiap-hatted  man,  the  fearless  one.  He  has  strange 
company  to-day,  at  home  and  abroad.  In  all  rever- 
ence, let  us  hope  that  God  may  prosper  him!  In 
all  reverence,  let  us  hope  that  there  may  never  arise 
from  the  great  and  understanding  soul  of  any  leader 
of  this  country  that  sad  and  bitter  cry,  "Give  me 
back  my  Americans  !'* 


GENERAL  INDEX 


Abbott,  J.  S.  C. :  158,  162-3,  224,  236. 

Abenakis:  22. 

Adams,   Josiah:  opinion  on  admission  of  Louisiana  as  a 

state,  61-2. 
Alabama:  few  whites  there  in  1800,  46;  part  included  in 

Free  State  of  Franklin,  125. 
Alamo,  The:  no  messengers  of  defeat,  149;  Travis  hemmed 

in,  177 ;  battle  of,  179. 
''Alamo  baby":  180. 
Alarcon:  328. 
Alaska:  387. 

Alexaiider,  Colonel :  defeats  Crockett  for  Congress,  165. 
Alleghany  mountains :  barrier  formed  by,  48. 
America:  her  debt  to  her  early  explorers,  74;  population 

of,  221 ;  gets  her  territory  first,  372 ;  potentially  most 

powerful  of  all   world  powers,   375;   utterly  changed 

from  original  America,  398;    a  look  into  the  future, 

424-428. 
American,  The:  his  birth,  103. 
American  frontiersmen :  dress  of,  18. 
American  Fur  Company  :  first  steamboat,  188;  gets  posts  of 

Northwest  Company,  197 ;  beginning  of,  329. 
Appalachians:  first  trails  were  waterways,  39. 
Archer,  of  Virginia:  177. 
Armijo,  Governor:  242. 
Armstrong,  Lieutenant-Governor:  169. 
Asenesipia:  69,  124. 
Ashley,  General:  goes  up  the  Platte,  294;   takes  cannon 

through  South  Pass,  328;   undertakes   exploration  of 

Green  River,  336-7. 
Astor,  John  Jacob :  289 ;  expedition  to  Astoria,  329-333. 
Astoria:  329. 

Atchison,  Topeka  &  Santa  F6  Railroad:  270. 
Austin,  Stephen  A. :  173. 
Austin:  177. 
J.Msfna-Hungary :  emigration  to  the  United  States.  409- 

410. 
Ax,  The  American :  description  and  uses,  7-10. 

(429) 


430  GENEKAL    IXDEX 


Bacon,  quotation  from :  388. 

Baird,  J.  M. :  268. 

Baird,  McKnight  &  Chambers :  268-271. 

Baker  and  Company,  I.  G. :  210. 

i?a/anc6  of  trade :  393. 

Baltimure:  45,  168. 

Baltimore  and  Ohio  Railroad  Co.  organized:  349. 

Bank  examiner:  distance  traveled  by  one,  208. 

Batts,  Thomas:  101. 

Beale,  Lieutenant:  250. 

Bear,  black :  163. 

Beaver,  skin :  price  of,  190. 

BeckneU,  William:  270-272. 

Bee  Hunter,  The:  176,  181. 

Benton,  Thomas :  300. 

Benton,  Fort :  209. 

Bering  Sea:  387. 

Berkeley,  Bishop:  38. 

Bicknell,  William :  270. 

Big  Men:  America  rich  in,  126-7. 

Birch-hoxV :  absence  of  in  Montana,  197. 

Birch-bdiTk  canoe :  description  of,  19-24. 

Blackfeet,  The :  341-2. 

Blue  Ridge  mountains :  barrier  formed  by,  48. 

Boarding:  cost  of  in  the  West,  215. 

Boat,  The  American :  description  of,  19-24. 

Boh,  Col.  R.  E. :  foot-note,  164. 

Bodley,  Thomas :  79. 

Bonneville,  Captain  :  312-315,  329. 

Boone,  Daniel:  45;  leaves  Society  of  Friends,  77;  moves 
from  Bucks  county,  77-8;  brothers-in-law,  79;  mar- 
riage, 80;  called  Luther  of  frontiering,  88;  personal- 
ity, 89-90;  personal  description,  91-94;  birth,  94;  sec- 
ond marriage,  95;  with  Braddock  as  a  wagoner,  96; 
determines  to  explore  Kentucky,  98;  where  is  his 
fame  as  an  explorer,  102;  departure  from  the  Yadkin 
settlement  for  the  West,  103 ;  left  alone  in  the  wilder- 
ness, 105;  moves  family  to  Kentucky,  107;  under- 
takes discovery  of  surve5''ors,  107-8 ;  lays  out  road  from 
the  Holston  to" the  Kentucky,  108;  knowledge  of  wood- 
craft, 109 ;  capture  of  his  daughter  by  the  Indians,  1 10 ; 
captured  by  Indians  and  taken  to  Detroit,  111 ;  life 
saved  by  Kenton,  114-15 ;  adventure  with  two  Indians, 
115-16;  leaves  Kentucky,  116;  granted  a  commission 
by  Spanish  governor  of  Louisiana,  117;  land  taken 
from  him  by  the  government,  117  ;  date  of  death,  118 ; 
his  late  years,  118-19;  his  body  and  that  of  his  wife 


GENERAL    INDEX  431 


moved  to  Kentucky,  120 ;  compared  with  Davy  Crock- 
ett, 145-6. 

Boone,  Squire:  104;  family  moves  to  Kentucky,  106; 
death,  113. 

Booneshorough:  42,  99;  founding  of,  108;  saved  by  Boone, 
111-112. 

Bore,  in  rifle :  13. 

Jl)wie.  James:  177. 

Braddock:  96. 

Bixindywine,  battle  of:  82. 

Brant,  Mohawk  chief :  48. 

Bread  riot:  216-218. 

Bri'^ger,  Fort:  295-6. 

Bridger,  Jim:  295-6. 

Britain,  ancient:  36. 

Broadwater,  Colonel  Charles  A. :  210. 

Bryan,  James:  79. 

Bryan,  Morgan:  79-80. 

Bryan,  Rebecca:  80,  95. 

Bryan,  William:  79. 

Bryant's  Station,  fight  at:  113. 

Buchanan,  Mrs.  Sally:  56. 

i??/e«a  Ventura :  243. 

Bvfdloes:  first  seen  by  Boone,  103. 

''BnUboats'':  197. 

Bullitt's  Lick:  65. 

Bi.rro:  price  of,  203. 

''Caches''  of  Baird  and  Chambers:  269. 

Cahokia:  45, 

Calico:  price  of,  190. 

California:  discovery  of  gold  in,  200;  density  of  population 

in  1870,  220;  discovery  of  gold,  and  its  effect  on  the 

West,  381-385. 
Callison,  Susannah:  82. 
Calloway  fsLinUy :  110. 
Canada:  emigration  to,  and  cause,  391;  emigration  to  the 

United  States  1821-1850,  407;  emigration  to,  416-418; 

will  it  be  Americanized,  418-422. 
Canal,  Washington's:  67. 
Canon  of  the  Colorado :  231,  328. 
Canot  du  Mattre:  23. 
Canot  du  Nord:  22,  195,  197. 
Caravan  iidide:  its  extent,  281 ;  goods  carried,  282;  carried 

on  by  Southern-Western  men,  282. 
Cardenas:  328. 
Carolina:  47;  rallying  ground  for  adventures,  88. 


432  GENERAL   IXDEX 


Carolina,  North:  its  relations  with  the  "Washington  Dis« 
trict,  128;  annexes  Watauga,  131;  gives  Washington 
District  to  the  United  States,  132 ;  repeals  act  of  ces- 
sion of  Washington  District,  133 ;  appoints  officers  for 
state  of  Franklin,  137. 

Carson,  Kit:  grandson  of  Daniel  Boone,  120;  birth,  223; 
description,  225 ;  dress  and  equipment,  227 ;  greatest  of 
American  travelers,  228 ;  dispute  concerning  birth  place, 
228;  boyhood  days,  229;  wanderings  from  1826  to  1834, 
229-238;  first  marriage,  239;  hunter  for  Bent's  Fort, 
1834-1842,  239-240;  guide  for  first  Fremont  expedition, 
241 ;  second  marriage,  242;  guide  for  second  Fremont 
expedition,  242-245;  guide  for  Fremont  a  third  time, 
247-9;  messenger  to  Washington  three  times,  249,  250, 
251;  appointed  lieutenant  in  the  U.  S.  A.,  251;  expe- 
dition with  eighteen  old  friends,  254;  sheep  drive  to 
California,  255;  Indian  agent  and  counselor,  257; 
death,  258. 

Carter,  John :  128. 

CastriUon:  Mexican  general,  180. 

Caucasian  population :  largest  is  that  of  America,  374. 

Cavalier:  37,  53,  75. 

Census:  second  of  the  U.  S.,  45. 

Center  of  population  in  1860 :  220. 

Central  Pacific  Railroad :  209. 

Chambers,  Baird  and  McKnight:  268-271. 

Champlain:  265. 

Cherokees:  54;  League  with  Spain,  59. 

Gherronesus:  69,  124. 

Chicago :  a  city  of  transportation,  364. 

Chicasas:  140. 

China:  struggle  of  the  nations  for  its  commerce,  422-424. 

Chittenden:  337. 

Choctaw  s:  140. 

Chouteau:  266,  338. 

Church:  first  in  the  West,  126. 

Civil  government :  first  written  compact  of,  130. 

Civil  War,  The :  causes  and  results,  354. 

Clark:  71,  287. 

Cleveland:  founded,  70. 

Cleveland,  Moses:  70. 

Coahuila:  174. 

Coal  oil:  price  of,  214. 

Coast  Indians:  331. 

Cocke,  General  William :  134. 

College:  first  in  the  West,  126. 

Colorado,  Grand  Caflon  of:  231, 

Colter,  John :  335. 


GENERAL   INDEX  433 


Commerce,  Western :  191. 

''Commerce  of  the  Prairies,  The"  :  268. 

Commercial  West:  its  beginning,  65-6. 

Congress:  sells  land  to  Ohio  Land  Company,  41;  proposes 
to  sell  vacant  lands,  132;  does  not  recognize  independ- 
ence of  Franklin,  137. 

Ooureurs  du  hois:  194. 

Coole,  William:  103. 

Gooley,  William:  103. 

Cooper,  Braxton :  271. 

Cooper.  Fennimore:  45. 

Corn:  price  of  in  early  days,  189. 

Coronado:  339. 

Cost  of  living:  greater  to-day  than  in  1899,  392. 

Courts:  follow  swiftly  into  Kentucky,  112. 

Crittenden:  orator  at  Boone's  burial  in  Kentucky,  120. 

Creek  War :   154. 

Crockett,  Davy:  145;  compared  with  Boone,  145-146;  his 
rapid  change  after  going  to  Congress,  147;  birth,  149; 
leaves  home,  151 ;  works  for  his  freedom,  152 ;  goes  to 
school,  153;  marriage,  153;  moves  toward  the  West, 
153-4 ;  serves  in  the  Creek  War,  154-5 ;  wife  dies  and 
he  marries  a  second  time,  156 ;  elected  to  the  legisla- 
ture, 157;  moves  to  the  Mississippi,  157;  electioneering 
stories,  159-163 ;  skill  as  a  bear  hunter,  163-4 ;  defeated 
by  Alexander  for  Congress,  165 ;  elected  to  Congress, 
166;  changes  from  bear  hunter  to  politician,  166-7; 
opposes  Jackson,  167 ;  motto,  167  ;  makes  a  trip  through 
the  North  and  East,  168-9;  result  of  northern  trip, 
169;  open  animosity  toward  Jackson,  170;  his  expe- 
rience with  the  political  machine,  171-2;  determines 
to  move  to  Texas,  172;  "autobiography,"  175;  route 
of  journev  to  Texas,  176;  accuses  Houston,  178;  death, 
180;  alleged  diary,  181. 

Crockett,  John:  150;  opens  a  tavern,  151. 

Crooks:  333. 

OwfZer,  Manasseh :  41. 

Cutthroat:  sign  for,  195. 

Danger  of  a  stage  trip :  213. 

''Dark  and  Bloody  Ground,"  The:  114. 

Davis,  Cushman  K. :  361. 

Day:  333. 

Dechard:  13. 

Dechert:  13. 

De  Munn:  266. 

Dequelo,  The :  179. 

Detroit:  111. 


434  GEXEEAL    IXDEX 


Development  of  the  West:  influenced  by  difficult  route  ot 

entry,  49-50. 
"Diamond  hitch":  205. 

^'Diamond  E"  Transportation  Company,  The:  210. 
Difficulties  of  Western  travel :  212. 
Doan,  Reverend  Samuel :  131. 
Dogs:  use  of  in  packing,  196. 
Donels on,  Rachel:  55. 
Doylestown,  Pennsylvania:  385. 
Drake,  Joseph :  100. 
Dress  of  American  frontiersmen:  18. 
"i>n>m9' the  nail":  16. 
Dugout,  The :  23. 

East,  The:  occupies  Western  territory  the   South   opens, 

189. 
Easterner,  The :  his  idea  of  the  Westerner,  67. 
Ely,  Warren  S. ;  76. 

Emigration  to  Canada:  cause,  391,  416-418. 
Empire,  Westward  the  course  of,  takes  its  way:  38. 
England:    61,  72;  transfers  trading  posts  to  United  States^ 

196;   fears   Canada    will    be    Americanized,    418-422; 

answer  to  Russia,  421;  wished  division  of  China,  423^ 
Europe:  must  combat  the  West,  373. 
Expansion,  geographical:  how  it  proceeds,  46. 
Explorations  by  men  of  Kentucky  and  Tennessee :  43-44. 

Fannin:  177. 

Fare,  from  Atchison  to  Helena :  214. 

Farms:  not  wanted  West  of  the  Mississippi,  193. 

''Father  of  the  Santa  F^  trail"  :  272. 

Fergusons,  The :  79. 

Finley,  Alexander:  79. 

Finley,  Archibald:  79. 

Finley,  Henry:  79. 

Finley,  John :  79,  81 ;  president  of  Log  College,  85 ;  traded 

with  Indians  on  Red  River,  99 ;   on  the  Ohio  River, 

101 ;  goes  West  with  Boone,  103. 
Finley  family,  members  of:  79. 
Fitch,  John:   385-6. 
Fitzpatrick,  noted  fur  trader :  233. 
Flack,  Ann  (Baxter) :  81. 
Flack,  Benjamin :   82. 
Flack,  James:  81. 

Flack,  William:  birth,  81;  marriage,  82. 
Flack,  W.  W.:  81. 

Flat-boat:  its  use  carried  men  away  from  the  East,  66v 
Flour,  price  of:  215. 


GENERAL   INDEX  435 


Forbes,  John  Murray :  368. 

Fowler,  Jacob:  271. 

France:  61,  72;  cedes  trading  posts  to  England,  196. 

Frankfort,  Kentucky :    Boone  erects  palisades  near  present 

site  of,  108 ;  Boone  buried  here,  120. 
FranMand:  134. 
Franklin,  Benjamin:    134. 
Franklin,  Free  State  of:  beginnings  of,  124-5;  legal  tender 

in,  135;  salaries  of  oflficers,  136;  clings  to  standards  of 

North  Carolina,  136;  ceases  to  exist,  138;  looked  south- 
ward for  an  alliance,  139. 
J^'ree  State  of  Franklin:  124-5. 
Freight  rates :  comparative  costs  in  Europe  and  America, 

390. 
Fremont:   224;   first   expedition,  241;   second  expedition, 

242-245 ;  hunts  a  more  direct  trail  to  California,  247-9 ; 

last  expedition,  257-8 ;  shall  he  share  honors  with  Car- 
^  son,  312. 
Fremont,  Jessie  Benton :  251. 
French,  The:  47-8;  expedition  of  1735,  101. 
Friends,  Society  of:  77. 
Frontier,    Western:    question  of    gradually  solves    itself, 

141-2;  in  1810,  185. 
Frontiersman,  A  7^'  ican:  outline  of  his  westward  progress, 

87. 
Fur  trade:  its  home  in  the  West,  194;  end  of,  200;  end  of 

the  beginning  of  a  new  day,  foot-note,  238. 
^^Fur  trade,  The  American"  :  337. 
Fur-traders:  find  a  way  to  the  Rockies,  186;  many  in  the 

trans-Missouri  before  1840,  339. 

Garces,  Father :  327. 

Gardoquoi:  Spanish  minister,  139,  140. 

Geography,  a  lost  art :  260. 

Georgia:  few  whites  there  in  1800,46;    part  included  in 

Free  State  of  Franklin,  125;  refuses  to  interfere  in 

North  Carolina-Franklin  controversy,  137-8;    sells   a 

portion  of  its  territory,  140. 
Germans,  The :  76. 
Germany:    emigration    from  to    the  United  States,   408; 

wished  division  of  China,  423. 
Gibson  House,  Helena:  216. 
Gillespie,  Lieutenant:  248. 
Girty:  113. 

Gist,  Christopher:  98,  101. 
Glenn,  Hugh:  271. 
Gold:  discoverv  of  in  California  and  its  effect  on  the  West. 

200,  381-383. 


436  GENEEAL   INDEX 


Chvemor  of  Louisiana:  grants  Daniel  Boone  a  commission, 

117. 
Grape  vine :  use  of  by  Daniel  Boone,  106. 
Great  Britain :  arms  savages  below  the  Great  Lakes,  110 ; 

emigration  to  the  United  States,  408. 
Great  Meadows :  96. 

Green  River :  exploration  of  by  Ashley  and  Henry,  336. 
Greenbacks:  value  of  in  the  West,  214. 
Greene,  Jonathan  H.:  176. 
Gregg,  Josiah:  268,  275,  326. 

Hallj  Fort:  289. 

Hall,  John:  128. 

Hamilton:  commandant  of  Detroit,  111. 

''Harrington'':  176. 

Harris,  Ann:  79. 

Harris,  Hannah:  78. 

Harrod,  James :  99. 

Harrodsburg :  42,  99. 

Harvard  College :  169. 

Hawkins,  Joseph:  150. 

Helplessness  of  trapper  without  a  horse:  28. 

Henderson,  Colonel:  108. 

Henry,  Fort:  332,  334. 

Henry,  Major  Andrew:  builds  Fort  Henry,  334;  undertakes 

exploration  of  Green  River,  336. 
Hill,  James  J. :  390. 
Holden,  Joseph :  103. 
Horse,  The  American:   aid  rendered  "Western  explorer, 

25-31. 
Horse  stealing :  a  serious  crime,  28. 
Houston,  Sam:  174,  177. 
Howard,  John:  101. 
Howe,  Henry :  352. 
Huger,  Isaac :  140. 
Hunt:  333. 

Hunt,  Wilson  Price :  294. 
Hunter,  John  D. :  340. 
Hunter,  Mary :  78. 
Hynds,  Alexander:  130. 

Illinois  Central  Railroad :  369-371. 

Illinois,  Governor  of :  189. 

Immigration:  caused  by  Civil  War,  356;  its  effect  on  the 
West,  357 ;  an  argument  against  unrestricted  immigra- 
tion, 401-412 ;  restriction  contemplated  by  Great  Brit- 
ain, 404;  statistics  for,  407-411. 

Independence:  starting  point  of  Santa  F4  trail,,  276. 


GENERAL  INDEX  437 

Indians:    could  not  occupy  trans- Alleghany  ground,  49. 

Individual,  The:    losing  his  grip  in  America  to-day,  399. 

Industrial  revolution  of  the  West:    355. 

Ingles,  Mary  Draper:    99. 

Inman:    270. 

Iroquois,  The:    trafficked  with  the  English,  43;    allied 

with  New  York,  47. 
Irrigation  of  the  West:    413-416. 
Italy:    emigration  to  the  United  States,  409,  410. 

Jackson,  General  Andrew:  55;  serves  in  Creek  War,  154; 
opposed  by  Crockett,  167;  denounced  by  Crockett, 
170;  favors  annexation  of  Texas,  178;  opposed  by 
Crockett  because  of  veto  for  Maysville  road,  183. 

Jamison,  Robert:    79. 

Jefferson,  Thomas:    68,  300. 

Jews,  Russian:    405. 

Johnston,  General  Albert  Sidney:    298. 

Johnson,  Sir  William:    Indian  agent,  48;  foot-note,  83. 

Jones'boro,  meeting  at:  133;  courts  held  at  by  Franklin, 
137. 

Joy,  James  F.:    367. 

Kashaskia:    45;  visited  by  General  Lafayette,  189. 

Kearney,  General:    249. 

Keel-hoat.  The:    185. 

Kenton,  Simon:    114. 

Kentucky:  fights  for  a  highway  over  the  Appalachians, 
41;  occupied  by  dangerous  Indian  tribes,  43;  outpost 
of  civilization,  50;  saved  to  the  Union,  58;  pioneers 
of,  80 ;  by  whom  settled,  88 ;  explored  by  Sailing  and 
Walker,  98;  recapitulation  of  explorations,  100-101; 
separated  from  Virginia  and  set  up  as  a  state,  116; 
pays  debt  to  Daniel  Boone  and  his  wife,  120;  part 
included  in  Free  State  of  Franklin,  125. 

Kentucky  settlements:    58. 

Kephart,  Horace:    44. 

Kin  Cade:    230. 

Kincaid:    229. 

Kootenai  trail.  The:    341. 

Labor  unions:  399. 

Lafayette,  General:    189. 

Lafltte:    173. 

Lajeunesse   Basil:    241,  248. 

La  Lande:    263. 

Langford,  N.  P.:    134,  140.  210. 

Laramie,  Fort:    295. 


438  GENEKAL   IXDEX 


J^aw:  position  of  the  West  in  regard  to,  127-128. 

^^Leatherstocking  TqXqs^'  :  45. 

Lederer,  John :  101. 

Lee,  Captain  U.  S.  A. :  236. 

jLee's  army :  215. 

Lewis,  Meriwether:  76. 

Lewis  and  Clark:  71,  287. 

Linseed  oil :  price  of  in  Montana,  214. 

Liza,  Manuel:  335. 

Log  College:  85. 

Long,  Major :  report  of  hia  Platte  expedition,  193 ;  seeks 

the  Red  River,  287. 
"Z;ongr  Hunters" :  100. 
Louis  the  Grand  Monarch :  194. 
T^ouisiana:  settled  after  Canada,  46;  evils  likely  to  arise 

from  its  incorporation  into  the  Union,  63;  dispute  with 

Spain  over  Sabine  as  boundary  of,  173. 
iowmana  Purchase :  60-61;  significance  of,  61. 
Luther,  Martin :  88. 

McBride,  James :  100. 

Jlcromb,  H.S.:  371. 

McCu  I  lough,  John:  101. 

McGary  nght:  113. 

3IcKee:  113. 

Mackenzie:  333. 

Mackinaw  boats :  198. 

McKnight,  John:  271. 

McKnight,  Robert:  230. 

McKnight,  Baird  and  Chambers:  268-271. 

McLaughlin,  Doctor:  324. 

McLellan:  333. 

Malgres:  266. 

i)/a/Ze«  brothers,  The :  263. 

Man,  The  West-bound  American :  51. 

Mansco,  Kasper:  99. 

Mansker,  Kasper:  99. 

Maritime  supremacy :  struggle  for,  with  Great  Britain,  424 

Markets  of  the  world  ;  a  struggle  for  to-day,  388. 

Martin,  Governor  of  North  Carolina:  136-137. 

3/anfm  Academy :  132. 

Maryland  Cansil:  348. 

Massachusetts:    part  played  in   the  development  of   the 

West,  347. 
"jiayfimoer,"  The:  42. 

Maxwell:  establishes  ranch  with  Carson,  253. 
Maysville  road:  bill  for,  183. 
Itlerriw ether :  267. 


GEISTEEAL   INDEX  439 


Metropotamia:  69. 

Mexican  capital :  in  western  trade,  274. 

Michigan,  Lake :  188. 

Militia,  The  Pennsylvania :  96. 

Mills:  improvement  of  rifle  by,  13. 

Minneapolis:  emigration  ofiices  in,  418. 

Mississippi :  few  whites  there  in  1800,  46. 

^'3Tississippi  Territory" :  70. 

Mississippi  River:  why  explored  from  the  North,  46;  con- 
trol of  secured,  60;  little  understood  by  statesmen  a 
hundred  years  ago,  61 ;  as  a  boundary  of  civilization, 
68;  a  boundary  of  states  in  ''Ordinance  of  North- 
west," 68;  descended  by  John  McCullough,  101;  first 
explorers,  73. 

Missouri:  becomes  outpost  of  civilization,  50;  first  steam- 
boat on,  188. 

Missouri  Fur  Company :  197. 

Monay,  James :  103. 

3Iontana,  routes  to:  211. 

''Montana  Post":  210. 

3Iooney,  James:  103. 

Morgan,  Colonel  George :  foot-note,  82-83. 

Morgan,  J.  Pierpont:  369. 

Mormons,  The:  296. 

Morrison,  William :  merchant  of  Kaskaskia,  282,  335. 

Morton,  Paul :  388. 

Jjfo^/ier  of  the  West:  40. 

3IouUrie,  Alexander:  140. 

Murphy  wagons :  211. 

Murray,  John  Dormer :  78. 

Napoleon  Bonaparte:  61,  212. 

Nashville,  Tennessee :  settlement,  54-57 ;  in  touch  with  the 
Ohio  River,  58. 

National  road :  64,  183. 

Neeley,  Alexander:  104. 

Neshaminy  Church:  85. 

New  England:  not  the  mother  of  the  West,  39;  realization 
of  the  West,  40;  character  of  population  compared  to 
that  of  western  Pennsylvania,  44 ;  explanation  of  her 
part  in  discovery  of  the  West,  44 ;  chances  in  favor  of 
it  in  western  movement,  49 ;  gives  a  cordial  reception 
to  Crockett,  169. 

Newfoundland:  emigration  to  the  United  States,  407. 

Neio  Madrid  earthquakes :  157. 

New  Orleans :  easy  to  reach  from  Kentuckj'-,  58;  visited  by 
John  McCullough,  101 ;  the  steamer,  187. 

**iVew  Purchase" :  156. 


440  GENEEAL   INDEX 


Newspaper:  first  in  the  "West,  126. 

New  York,  parent  of  the  West;  40;  he»  policy  toward  the 
Indians,  47 ;  spared  by  Six  Nations,  47 ;  influence  with 
Indians  due  to  Sir  William  Johnson,  48 ;  gains  lands 
from  the  Iroquois,  48;  chances  in  favor  of  it  in  west- 
ward movement,  49. 

Nicollet:  265. 

North,  The:  occupies  Western  territory;  the  South  opens, 
189. 

North  Carolina :  men  from,  built  Harrodsburg  and  Boones- 
borough,  42. 

Northern  Pacific  Railway,  The:  365. 

Northwest,  The:  its  rapid  settlement  to-day,  299. 

Northwest  Company:  extends  posts  along  our  Northern 
border,  196 ;  rival  of  Hudson  Bay  Company,  329-. 

Northioestern  Company,  The :  333. 

Northwest  Territory,  The :  124. 

Norway :  emigration  to  the  United  States,  408. 

Occupation  of  the  West:  a  study  of  transportation,  36. 
Ohio:  receives  first  population  from  New  England,  70. 
**OMo  Land  Company":  41. 
Ohio  River :  known  in  early  days,  38 ;  center  of  population 

on,  220. 
Ojibways:  22. 
*'OZdBetsv":  168. 
■''Ordinance  of  the  Northwest":  68. 
Oregon:  density  of  population  in  1870,  220;  should  extend 

to  Alaska,  289-290. 
Oregon  trail:  greatest  of  all   American  roads,  262;  early 

need  for,  289 ;  early  makers,  291 ;  its  beginning,  293 ; 

early  adventurers  along,  294;  a  second  stage  begins, 

297;   first  agricultural  invasion  along,  298;  distance 

and  direction,  305-310. 
*'Ore^o?i  Trail,"  Parkman's:  303. 
Oshorn,  William  Henry :  368-372. 
Oxen:  used  as  pack  animals,  206. 

Pacific:  first  man  to  reach  it  by  land  trail,  318. 

Pacific  Fur  Company:  197. 

Pacific  railway :  delayed  by  the  Civil  War,  354. 

Pack  horse :  202. 

Packing,  flexibility  of  charges  for:  204. 

Paine,  Justice  of  Wisconsin :  377. 

Panniers:  30. 

Parkman,  Francis :  275,  300-304. 

Pastimes  of  frontiersmen :  16. 

Pathfinder,  The  Great :  224. 


GENEEAL   I:N'DEX  441 


Pawnees,  The:  wear  Spanish  medals,  338. 

Pax  Jacksonii:  178. 

Pelesipia:  69,  124. 

Penn,  William :  76. 

Pennsylvania:  starting  point  of  the  westward  movement, 
13;  chances  against  it  in  westward  movement,  49; 
first  trail  from,  73 ;  migrations  from  in  last  half  of 
eighteenth  century,  77. 

Peters,  Doctor:  228. 

Petition  of  Robertson  and  Sevier's  men :  59. 

Phenicia:  36. 

Philadelphia:  76,  168. 

PhiUibert:  266-7. 

Physical  strength :  its  importance  in  the  "West,  192. 

Piano  taken  to  a  mining  camp :  204. 

Pike,  Lieutenant  Zebulon:  marches  to  the  Colorado,  71; 
theory  of  straight  lines,  262 ;  seeks  headwaters  of  Red 
River,  264;  opposed  by  the  Spaniards,  266;  selects 
route  of  Santa  Fe  trail,  270;  mistakes  Rio  Grande  for 
Red  River,  287 ;  journeys  of,  337-339. 

Pioneers  of  Kentucky :  80. 

Pirate,  The :  176,  181. 

Plains,  Indians:  340. 

Piatt  River:  ancient  road  of  the  Indians,  293. 

Poland :  emigration  to  the  United  States,  410. 

Polk,  Colonel :  159. 

Population:  center  of  in  1860,  220;  of  America,  221. 

Post,  The :  215-216. 

Potatoes:  price  of  in  San  Juan  mining  camp  in  1875,  203; 
in  Montana,  215;  in  Chicago  in  1902,  393. 

Poioell,  Major:  336. 

Prices:  high  in  the  Rockies,  203;  in  Virginia  City,  Mon- 
tana, 214-216. 

Pnnceton:  85,  131. 

''Proceedings  of  Sundry  Citizens  of  Baltimore"  :  349. 

Prosperity:  a  false  condition  of  to-day,  395-401. 

Protestant,  The :  53. 

Purcell,  James :  263. 

Puritans:  42-3. 

Putnam,  Rufus :  41. 

Quakers:  63;  stem  of  pioneer  stock,  76;  find  homes  west 

of  the  Alleghanies,  77. 
Quicksilver:  hard  to  pack  in  the  mountains,  205. 

Bailroads:  wooden-railed  road  from  Chicago  to  Galena,  346 ; 
idea  of  Philip  Evans  Thomas,  348-9;  routes  suggested 
to  the  Pacific,  351-2 ;  prophecy  of  what  a  road  to  the 


U2  GENERAL   INDEX 


Pacific  would  do,  353 ;  to  the  Pacific  delayed  by  Civil 
War,  354 ;  part  played  by  them  in  the  development  of 
the  West,  362-367 ;  changes  wrought  by  them,  385 ;  their 
growth  in  America,  386 ;  formerly  owned  largely  out- 
side the  U.  S.,  389;  an  overgrowth  to-day,  391;  will 
settle  future  of  the  West,  420. 

Bamsey:  134. 

Beceipt-hoo^  of  William  Flack:  81. 

Bed  River  carts :  345. 

Beed:  333. 

"Bemember  the  Alamo" :  182. 

Bifle,  The  American :  description,  11-18. 

Bio  Grande:  173. 

Bobertson:  rebellion  of  his  men  against  Washington,  59; 
formulates  first  written  compact  of  civil  government, 
130. 

Bobertson,  Charles :  128. 

Bobertso7i,  James :  53-4. 

Bocky  Mountain  Fur  Company :  197. 

Boosevelt,  Mr. :  of  New  York,  187. 

Boundhead:  37. 

Boutes  suggested  to  the  Pacific :  351-2. 

Boutes  to  Montana:  211. 

Bush:  111. 

Bussia:  emigration  to  the  U.  S.,  410;  England's  answer 
to,  421. 

Sabine  River:  173. 

St.  Clair:  defeat  of,  114. 

St.  Louis:  became  great  bj'  reason  of  her  situation,  51 ;  des- 
pot for  fur  trade,  70 ;  a  cit}^  of  location,  364. 

St.  Paul:  emigration  offices  in,  418. 

St.  Vrain,  Colonel:  257. 

/S'aZe?/i  Presbyterian  Church :  131. 

Sailing,  John  Peter:  98-9,  101. 

Salt:  its  importance  in  early  days,  100. 

San  Antonio :  Texans  at,  175 ;  Crockett  inside  the  ga^es  of,. 
177. 

San  Francisco:  256. 

San  Jacinto :  182. 

Santa  Anna:  marches  on  San  Antonio,  174;  his  peons 
march  toward  the  Alamo,  179. 

Santa  Fe  railway :  279-280. 

"Santa  Fe  Trail,  Old"  :  270. 

Sa7ita  Fe  trail :  not  a  transcontinental  trail,  262 ;  extent  of, 
276 ;  distances  and  directions  of,  276-280 ;  a  fate  finger 
pointing  to  Mexico,  285. 

''■Saw  Buck,"  The:  30. 


GENERAL   INDEX  443 


School-hmlding:  first  one  in  Tennessee,  131. 

JScotch-lrish :  stem  of  pioneer  stock,  76. 

Scott,  General:  114. 

Secession:  position  of  the  West  in  regard  to,  in  early  days, 
123-4. 

Settlement:  advanced  toward  the  Mississippi  in  the  shape 
of  a  wedge,  45. 

Sevier,  John:  rebellion  of  his  men  against  Washington, 
59 ;  honored  by  Tennessee,  125 ;  friend  of  Washington, 
128;  a  member  of  the  North  Carolina  legislature, 
128-9;  formulates  first  written  compact  of  civil  govern- 
ment, 130;  part  taken  in  annexation  of  Watauga  to 
North  Carolina,  131 ;  presides  at  Jonesboro  meeting, 
133 ;  elected  governor,  134 ;  arrested  on  charge  of  trea- 
son, 138;  elected  to  Congress,  138. 

Sevier  and  Kobertson :  riflemen  of,  58. 

*' Shakes,"  The:  157. 

Shaicnee  Indians  capture  Daniel  Boone:  111. 

Shelby,  Captain  Evan:  128. 

Shenandoah — Kentucky  stock :  73. 

Shiells,  Dr.  Hugh :  79. 

Shiells,  Kitty :  79. 

Sierra  Nevada  mountains :  243-4. 

^Sio^.r  Indians,  The:  195. 

Six  Nations :  47. 

Skaggs,  Henry :  101. 

Smet,  Father  de :  297. 

Smith,  Henry:  174. 

Smith,  James :  101. 

Smith,  Jedediah:  meets  his  fate  on  Santa  Fe  trail,  273; 
goes  to  the  Pacific  by  land  trail,  318-327. 

Snipes,  Major  William :  140. 

*'Snvffi,ng  the  candle"  :  16. 

Socialism:  captains  of  industry  likely  to  cause  the  spread 
of,  398. 

"Society  of  Friends":  records  of,  77. 

South,  The :  mother  of  the  West,  40 ;  opens  Western  terri- 
tory, 189;  is  to-day  American,  356;  little  understood, 
366. 

'' South  Sesis,  The'':  129. 

Southern  Pacific  Railway,  The:  365. 

Southern  rl^em en:  their  skill,  14. 

Spain:  league  with  the  Cherokees,  59;  claims  portion  of 
Georgia,  140;  claims  Sabine  as  a  boundary,  173. 

Spaniards:  result  of  letting  their  horses  struggle  over  the 
plain,  27 ;  interfere  with  Jedediah  Smith,  321. 

Spencer,  Judge :  138. 

Stage  lines :  207, 


444  GEXERaIj    index 


Stage  trip:  description  of,  213. 

Star  of  empire:  38. 

Steam,  era  of:  causes  great  change  in  America,  362. 

Steamboat:   first  one  bailt  on  the  Ohio   River,  187;   run 

regularly  on  western  rivers,  201. 
Steiner,  Michael :  99,  108. 
Stewart,  John :  103 ;  killed  by  Indians,  104. 
Stewart,  William :  78. 
Stone,  Uriah:  101. 
Stoner,  Michael :  99, 108. 
Streams:  their  appeal  to  explorers,  292. 
Strode,  Martha :  80. 
Stuart,  John:  103. 
Stuart,  Robert:  294. 
Sturges,  Jonathan :  369,  370. 
Sublette,  William :  295. 
Sugar:  price  of  in  running  camps,  203. 
Sumpter  mule :  202. 
Supplies:  how  received  by  outlying  posts,  198;   taken  to 

Montana  mining  camps^,  211. 
Sweden:  emigration  to  the  United  States,  408. 
Sylvania:  69. 

Taylor,  Colonel :  foot-note,  83. 

Tennessee:  saved  to  the  Union,  58;  by  whom  peopled,  88; 
part  included  in  Free  State  of  Franklin,  125 ;  honors 
John  Sevier,  125 ;  early  form  of  government,  130 ;  first 
literary  institution  in,  131. 

Tennent:  85. 

Texans:  harass  western  commerce,  273. 

Texas:  size,  172;  population,  174;  declared  independent, 
174 ;  situation  in  after  declaration  of  independence,  177. 

Thermopvlce:  149. 

Thimblerig:  176,  181. 

Thomas,  Philip  Evans :  347-349. 

Thome,  captain  of  the  Tonquin :  330-331. 

Timber  lands:  being  abandoned,  375. 

Tonquin:  ship  of  Astor,  330-331. 

Trade,  caravan:  its  extent,  281;  goods  carried,  282;  car- 
ried on  bv  southern-western  men,  282. 

Trail:  the  Iroquois,  47 ;  the  Santa  Fe,  260 ;  the  Oregon,  287. 

Tramell,  Colonel :  230. 

Transportation:  in  its  infancy,  64;  difiBculty  of,  leads  to 
attempts  of  secession,  124;  its  importance  in  early 
days,  191 ;  means  employed  in  early  times,  328. 

Transylvania  University :  79. 

Travel:  difficulties  of  in  the  West,  212. 

Tmvis:  177. 


GENEEAL   INDEX  '445 


Travois,  The :  196. 

Tucker,  Benjamin:  41. 

Two  Medicine :  The  valley  of,  341. 

Ulster,  Ireland:  84. 
Ulster  Scots:  83-86. 
Union  Pacific  Railroad:  209,  365. 

Van  Bur  en:  183. 

Verendrye,  Sieur  de  la:  explores  the  "West  in  1742,   265; 

one  of  the  first  to  tread  the  Oregon  trail,  294. 
Victoria  Cross :  115. 
Villard,  Henry:  368. 

Virginia  City,  Montana:  market  reports,  214. 
Virginia:  noted  as  a  breeding  ground  for  horses,  26;  men 

from  built  Harrodsburg  and  Boonesborough,  42 ;  part 

included  in  Free  State  of  Franklin,  125. 
Virginia,  West :  part  included  in  Free  State  of  Franklin,  125. 
Von  Humboldt,  Baron:  287. 

Wagon  train  :  description  of,  209. 

Walker,  J.  R. :  goes  to  the  Pacific,  315-318. 

Walker,  Doctor  Thomas :  98,  101. 

Wallace,  John :  80. 

Wallace,  Rev.  J.  W. :  80. 

Washington,  George :  canal,  67 ;  birth,  94 ;  defeated  at  Great 
Meadows,  96 :  on  the  Ohio  River,  101 ;  friend  of  Sevier, 
128,  140. 

Washington:  authorities  at,  unable  to  be  firm  with  France, 
Spain  and  England,  59. 

Washington  College :  132. 

Washington  District:  men  of  offer  their  services  in  the 
Revolution,  128;  becomes  part  of  North  Carolina,  131 ; 
given  to  the  United  States,  132 ;  takes  steps  to  establish 
a  government,  133. 

Washington,  government  at:  Wilkinson  stirs  up  dissatisfac- 
tion against,  141. 

Watauga:  130;  annexed  to  North  Carolina,  131. 

Watauga  Articles  of  Association :  130. 

Water  trail :  from  Green  Bay  to  the  Mississippi,  70. 

''Wautap'':  20. 

Webster,  Daniel :  64,  300. 

Welsh:  76. 

West,  The:  indebted  to  southern  states  for  its  inhabitants, 
184 ;  either  old  or  new,  302 ;  a  prediction  of  its  devel- 
opment, 375-377 ;  little  difference  between  it  and  the 
East,  379. 

West-bound  rnojo.:  The  American,  51. 


446  GEXEEAL   IXDEX 


Western  man,  The:  his  reliance  and  development,  67. 

Westioard  movement :  starting  point,  13 ;  compared  to  flock 
of  wild  pigeons,  143 ;  one  of  angles,  144. 

Wharton,  Samuel :  foot-note,  83. 

JVhart07is,  The :  177. 

Wheat:  cost  of  moving  a  ton  in  1800,  389. 

White,  James :  opinion  on  future  of  Louisiana  after  its  pur- 
chase, 62. 

'iVhite  people:  portion  of  country  inhabited  by  them  in 
1800,  45. 

"Whoa-haw'':  299. 

*' Widow  and  orphan  makers":  rifle  so  called,  14. 

Wilkinson,  General  James :  plans  to  hand  over  the  West 
to  Spain,  59-60,  124 ;  continues  his  intrigues,  139. 

Williams,  Bill :  guide  for  Fremont,  258. 

Williams,  Ezekiel,  294. 

Wills  of  Bucks  countians :  80. 

Women:  two  go  West  along  Oregon  trail,  297. 

Wyeth,  Nathaniel  J. :  289. 

Tasoo:  140. 

TeZZotosJone  National  Park:  335, 

Young t  Ewing :  230. 


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STORIES  OF  RARE  CHARM  BY 

GENE  STRATTON-PORTER 

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HER  FATHER'S  DAUGHTER.     Illustrated. 

This  story  is  of  California  and  tells  of  that  charming  girl,  Linda 
Strong,  otherwise  known  as  "  Her  Father's  Daughter." 

A  DAUGHTER  OF  THE  LAND.     Illustrated. 

Kate  Bates,  the  heroine  of  this  story,  is  a  true  "Daughter  of  the 
Land,"  and  to  read  about  her  is  truly  inspiring. 

MICHAEL  O'KALLORAN.     Illustrated  by  Frances  Rogers. 

Michael  is  a  quick-witted  little  Irish  newsboy,  living  in  Northern 
Indiana.  He  adopts  a  deserted  little  girl,  a  cripple.  He  also  aspires 
to  lead  the  entire  rural  community  upward  and  onward. 

LADDIE.     Illustrated  by  Herman  Pfeifer. 

This  is  a  bright,  cheery  tale  with  the  scenes  laid  in  Indiana.  The 
story  is  told  by  Little  Sister,  the  youngest  member  of  a  large  family, 
but  it  is  concerned  not  so  much  with  childish  doings  as  with  the  love 
affairs  of  older  members  of  the  family. 

THE  HARVESTER.     Illustrated  by  W.  L.  Jacobs. 

"The  Harvester,"  is  a  man  of  the  woods  and  fields,  and  is  well 
-worth  knowing,  but  when  the  Girl  comes  to  his  "Medicine  Woods," 
there  begins  a  romance  of  the  rarest  idylUc  quality. 

ERECKLES.     Illustrated. 

Freckles  is  a  nameless  waif  when  the  tale  opens,  but  the  way  in 
■which  he  takes  hold  of  life  ;  the  nature  friendships  he  forms  ;  and 
his  love-story  with  "The  Angel  "  are  full  of  real  sentiment. 

A  GIRL  OF  THE  LIMBERLOST.     Illustrated. 

The  story  of  a  girl  of  the  Michigan  woods  ;  a  buoyant,  loveable 
type  of  the  self-rehant  American.  Her  philosophy  is  one  of  love  and 
kindness  toward  all  things  ;  her  hope  is  never  dimmed. 

AT  THE  FOOT  OF  THE  RAINBOW.     Illustrations  in  colors. 

The  scene  of  this  charming  love  story  is  laid  in  Central  Indiana. 
It  is  one  of  devoted  friendship,  and  tender  self-sacrificing  love. 

THE  SONG  OF  THE  CARDINAL.     Profusely  Illustrated. 

A  love  ideal  of  the  Cardinal  bird  and  his  mate,  told  with  delicacy 
and  humor. 

Grosset  &  Dunlap,         Publishers,         New  York 


"STORM  COUNTRY"  BOOKS  BY 

GRACE  MILLER  WHITE 

Fay  ba  had  wherever  books  are  sold.     Ask  for  firosset  &  Dunlap's  list. 
JUDY  OF  ROGUES'  HARBOR 

'■!■■■  I  ■  M    I  II  I  ■ 

Judy's  untutored  ideas  of  God,  her  love  of  wild  things, 
her  faith  in  life  are  quite  as  inspiring  as  those  of  Tess, 
Her  faith  and  sincerity  catch  at  your  heart  strings.  This 
book  has  all  of  the  mystery  and  tense  action  of  the  other 
Storm  Country  books. 

TESS  OF  THE  STORM  COUNTRY 

It  was  as  Tess,  beautiful,  wild,  impetuous,  that  Mary 
Pickford  made  her  reputation  as  a  motion  picture  actress. 
How  love  acts  upon  a  temperament  such  as  hers — a  tem- 
perament that  makes  a  woman  an  angel  or  an  outcast,  ac- 
cording to  the  character  of  the  man  she  loves — is  the 
theme  of  the  story. 

THE  SECRET  OF  THE  STORM  COUNTRY 

The  sequel  to  "  Tess  of  the  Storm  Countr}%"  with  the 
same  wild  background,  with  its  half-gypsy  life  of  the  squat- 
ters— tempestuous,  passionate,  brooding.  Tess  learns  the 
"  secret "  of  her  birth  and  finds  happiness  and  love  through 
her  boundless  faith  in  life. 

FROM  THE  VALLEY  OF  THE  MISSING 

A  haunting  story  with  its  scene  laid  near  the  country 
familiar  to  readers  of  "  Tess  of  the  Storm  Coxmtry." 

ROSE  O'  PARADISE 

"  Jinny  "  Singleton,  wild,  lovely,  lonely,  but  with  a  pas- 
sionate yearning  for  music,  grows  up  in  the  house  of  Lafe 
Grandoken,  a  crippled  cobbler  of  the  Storm  Country.  Het 
romance  is  full  of  power  and  glory  and  tenderness. 


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